Review: Poison, by Sara Poole

Pages: 392

Original date of publication: 2010

My edition: 2010 (St. Martin’s Press)

Why I decided to read: I heard about this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program

How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, May 2010

Set in 1492, Poison is told from the point of view of Francesca Giordano, professional poisoner to the Borgia family (or, more accurately, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope). Cardinal Borgia is a dangerous man, willing to do anything to further his ambitions, and he hires Francesca to help poison the current pope. Meanwhile, Francesca discovers a plot that her father, also a professional poisoner, may have been involved in.

I did like the premise, I really did; that’s why I decided to read this book. It has a great, eye-catching opener, too, which kept me reading. But the plot is so convoluted and so “been there, done that,” that I found myself not caring anymore about what happened to any of the characters. I guess my main problem with the novel is that it fell short of my expectations; I expected a story about the Borgias as told by someone somewhat close to them, and instead I got an overblown adventure/romance story. Cardinal Borgia and Cesar make appearances here and there, and Lucrezia appears once or twice, but that’s about it.

As I read, I increasingly found myself disliking Francesca, especially since the book is written in the first person. She’s very modern, independent, intelligent, and yes, she wears boy’s clothing out in public so that she may move around more freely. Basically, she can do anything she wants to, and doesn’t seem to care about the consequences—even after she’s been attacked by a bunch of thugs. I simply didn’t “buy” her as a person form the 15^th century. She’s the keeper of a lot of people’s secrets, yet, as another reviewer says, she’s way too chatty. I also didn’t really get her whole relationship with Cesar Borgia, which seemed to be there for sake of being there; it didn’t add very much to the plot. As an adventure/romance story, this might work for some people, but as historical fiction, I didn’t particularly care for it.

Review: Chatterton Square, by EH Young

Pages: 378

Original date of publication: 1947

My edition: 1987 (Virago)

Why I decided to read: Looking at the list of Virago Modern Classics, it piqued my interest

How I acquired my copy: Ebay seller, June 2010

Set in the months leading up to WWII, Chatterton Square focuses on two people living across the street from each other in Upper Radstowe (based on Bristol). There are the Blacketts: Mr. Blackett, a domineering, selfish bore who stifles his very Victorian wife, and their three daughters, especially Flora and Rhoda, who live under the thumb of their father. Across the street live the Frasers, with no discernable man at the head. Rosamond Fraser is a mostly carefree mother of five children growing to adulthood, who lives with her old childhood friend, Miss Spanner. All of the action is set around the eponymous Chatterton Square, yet it's always referred to as the Square, never by its full name.

This is one of those novels that are frequently described as “character driven.” As far as plot goes, there’s not much to this book; for most of the novel, the characters sit in breathless anticipation waiting for something to happen, for the war to start (especially worrying for Rosamund, considering two of her sons could potentially participate). Where the author excels is character description, but she does it very subtlety; instead of saying that Bertha Blackett is Victorian in her mannerisms, the author says that Bertha is one of those women who should have been wearing a bonnet and bustle. With her meek, mild demeanor, constantly demurring to her husband, she’s an interesting contrast to Rosamund, who’s faced with a very 20^th-century decision. But somehow, the two women forge a friendship together, despite Herbert Blackett’s disapproval. Herbert’s character lacks the comedy that many bores in fiction possess, but he’s still a well-defined and interesting character.

Another thing that EH Young does very well is depicting the various relationships between her characters—married relationships, young people courting, friendships between two middle-aged people (especially interesting is the dynamic between Rosamund, Bertha Blackett, and Piers Lindsay; equally interesting is the friendship between Rosamund and Miss Spanner). EH Young depicts all of her characters and their complicated relationships with wit and insight, and I found this book to be a joy to read because of that. Because this book was written in 1947, after the war had ended, there’s a fair bit of foreshadowing with regards to the war, but other than that, I really enjoyed this book.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MzB of Should Be Reading (though it’s going on tour this upcoming month). Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

--Grab your current read

--Open to a random page

--share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

Be sure NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

--Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

“In the weeks after Christmas, Elizabeth began to dream of Nathaniel Bonner, so that she grew both anxious before she fell asleep, and reluctant to wake in the morning. While the rising sun touched the frost on her windows and shattered into rainbows, she would lie half conscious in the warm nest of her covers and relive what she had dreamt, blushing and slightly breathless, confused and strangely discontent.”

--From Into the Wilderness, by Sara Donati

The Sunday Salon

What a crazy week this has been! My cousin, who’s ten, was in town for most of this past week, and since he’s high energy, it’s taken a lot of energy especially out of my mom, who also had to deal with my 87-year-old grandmother. Plus. my sister was in town for the weekend, so it’s been mostly crazy around here. All of my posts this past week have been scheduled; and I only got around to writing a bunch of outstanding reviews yesterday afternoon.

It’s quieter here now that my mom has driven my sister back to New York, and I’ve spent much of today catching up on sleep and, of course, reading. Right now I’m reading one of my Virago Modern Classics: The Rising Tide, by Molly Keane (though it was originally published under her pseudonym MJ Farrell). I’m really loving it; the author really knew how to combine wonderful (sometimes exasperating) characters with a great plot. I’ve been cruising Ebay for more books by Molly Keane, since I’m living her writing style. This is easily one of the best books I’ve read this month.

Also read this week were Elizabeth Chadwick’s To Defy a King (didn’t love it as much as I thought I would, but it’s good nonetheless) Laura Joh Rowland’s Shinju (mystery set in 17^th century Edo, now Tokyo), and Bright Young People, by DJ Taylor, nonfiction about the Bright Young Things of the 1920s and 1930s. Evelyn Waugh was one of them, and the book, although I didn’t totally love it, has inspired me to read Vile Bodies, a copy of which that’s been moldering on the shelf since at least last November when I bought it at a library paperback sale.

How has your weekend been? Read anything good lately?

Review: Unnatural Death, by Dorothy Sayers

Pages: 264

Original date of publication: 1927

My edition: 1995 (Harper)

Why I decided to read: a character in Nightingale Wood was reading “the latest Dorothy Sayers” and that inspired me to pick up this one.

How I acquired my copy: secondhand bookstore, Brooklyn, May 2008

I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while, ever since I bought it used in a bookstore near where I used to live in Brooklyn. My interest in Sayers’s novels resurfaced a couple of months ago, and since I’m reading her books in order of publication, this one was up on deck next after Clouds of Witness.

One day, Lord Peter and his confederate, Inspector Parker, hear the tale of an elderly woman who died apparently of natural causes—but the young doctor in the case thinks there’s something suspicious in the circumstances under which she died—circumstances in which the old woman’s niece has a lot to gain or loose by her death. When Lord Peter investigates the story, he starts to unravel a tangled web of legal and medical issues, made more interesting by a sort of twist about halfway through the book.

As a character, Lord Peter doesn’t evolve much in favor of the story (beyond a biographical note at the beginning of the story, which didn’t help very much), but there are some great supporting characters, including Miss Climpson, a spinster who becomes Wimsey’s eyes and ears during the investigation—especially important considering that most of the main characters in the case never even have speaking roles, and Miss Cimpson’s letters to Wimsey give the reader a great idea of what’s going on. Miss Climpson is one of the sharpest women out there, and her skills are invaluable in the pursuit and catching of the murderer (yes, it’s murder that happens—it’s just the matter of how and why that need clearing up, and that are so much more important). The legal jargon that Sayers uses was a bit much for me, but in all I thought this was a strong mystery. It’s maybe not as good as some of Sayers’s other books, but I still enjoyed it.

Review: Dracula, My Love, by Syrie James

Pages:

Original date of publication: 2010

My edition: 2010 (Avon)

Why I decided to read: it was offered on Amazon Vine

How I acquired my copy: Vine, May 2010

Dracula, My Love is a retelling of the Dracula myth. It’s been a long time since I read the original, and my memory is a little hazy about whether or not this book stays true to its inspiration. But I really enjoyed this novel, covering Mina (Murray) Harker’s experiences from her time at Whitby (where she meets a man named Mr. Wagner, obvious to everyone but her that he’s Dracula), her love affair with Dracula (even though she’s married to Jonathan) up through the time when she must make a difficult decision regarding her personal happiness.

I’ve read Syrie James’s other two books (one based on the life of Jane Austen and her inspiration for Sense and Sensibility, the other about Charlotte Bronte), and this one is just as enjoyable. The author’s prose flows very smoothly and the plot moves along quickly. James’s Mina Harker is a believable character, strong in the face of he difficulties she experiences. She’s a bit too modern at some points in the story, but I found that that didn’t interfere too much with my enjoyment of the story.

Normally, I don’t read much Dracula and vampire-inspired fiction—and those that I do read, I find disappointing (take Deanna Raybourn’s The Dead Travel Fast as an example—I love her writing normally, but I thought the plot of that book was rather ridiculous). But with Dracula My Love, the author doesn’t go overboard with the vampire stuff. In fact, I though Dracula was quite a sympathetic character. At the same time though, you can’t totally trust him. Is he telling the truth? Or is he just feeding Mina what she wants to hear? I remember Stoker’s Dracula as being pure evil, so it was interesting to see a new side to him.

Although Mina and Dracula’s characters were well-drawn, however, I thought the other men faded into the background at times—Mr. Morris and Lord Godalming say about five sentences between then, and Van Helsing comes across as being a bit of an idiot. James uses British spelling in order to make Mina’s voice more authentic, but her use of British spelling is often inconsistent. She also uses footnotes to explain some terms and foreign phrases, but thankfully these occur infrequently. Nonetheless, I thought that was an likable retelling of the Dracula myth, definitely worth reading if you’ve enjoyed Syrie James’s other two novels.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading (though it’s going on tour this upcoming month). Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

--Grab your current read

--Open to a random page

--share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

Be sure NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

--Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

“Suddenly Tripes lifted his head and growled; then his tail thumped the floor. The door quietly opened and Hugh tiptoed into the room.”

--From To Defy a King, by Elizabeth Chadwick

Review: Love's Shadow, by Ada Leverson

Pages: 225

Original date of publication: 1908

My edition: 2010 (Bloomsbury Group)

Why I decided to read: it was offered through LTER

How I acquired my copy: blogger giveaway, May 2010

Love’s Shadow is a very short novel about a group of upper-class people living in Edwardian London. There are Bruce and Edith Ottley; Hyacinth Verney, a local debutante; Cecil Reeve, an eligible bachelor; Anne Yeo, Hyacinth’s companion, who imagines herself to be an elderly spinster (although she’s no more than thirty); and others.

The biggest problem I had with this novel is that there doesn’t seem to be much of a plot. The pace picks up at the end of the book, when a misunderstanding threatens Hyacinth and Cecil’s happiness; but the book is more a series of character studies than anything else. However, the characters aren’t very well fleshed out (with the exception of Bruce, who’s a fantastic bore and I can’t really understand why Edith stays with him).

The potential for the novel is there, it just doesn’t hinge together well. Hyacinth and Cecil’s marriage occurs halfway through the book, and so the rest of their relationship seems very anticlimactic to me. The concept of loving someone while still living in the shadow of that person’s love for someone else is interesting, but I just didn’t like the way that the book played out. The book is set in London, but really it could have taken place anywhere for all the description the author gives us. Overall, the book feels very dated (eg, the author’s use of the word “flapper” to describe various young women in this story; it probably didn’t mean the same thing at the time the book was written as it did in the 1920s). It’s disappointing because I wanted to like this book so much, but it didn’t live up to the expectations I had for it.

Review: Nightingale Wood, by Stella Gibbons

Pages: 387

Original date of publication: 1938

My edition: 2010 (Penguin)

Why I decided to read: It’s my “N” title for the A to Z Challenge

How I acquired my copy: Barnes and Noble giftcard, April 2010

Viola is newly widowed when she’s invited by her husband’s family to come live with them in Sible Pelden. There’s Mr. Wither, who’s a fantastic bore; Mrs. Wither, who doesn’t quite care for her new daughter-in-law (due to the fact that she’s the daughter of a shop owner); and Tina and Madge, their middle-aged daughters who have never quite grown up and are waiting for something to happen to them. The story follows these characters and others over the course of a year, the highlight being a charity ball at which a local eligible bachelor named Victor Spring will be present.

One of the things that Stella Gibbons is famous for was her sense of humor, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Nightingale Wood. Stella Gibbons’s humor is a little more maniacally funny, but the characters and plot of this one never fail to be entertaining.

There’s a very surreal, Midsummer Night’s Dream-esque feeling to this book—all kinds of people slipping away to the woods to conduct love affairs, licit and otherwise. So, often, this book reads like a fairy tale—a fairy tale with a twist, especially since the two Prince Charmings in this book doesn’t always have the purest intentions…

The characterizations in this novel are especially strong. Viola isn’t quite what you’d expect from a woman who married someone twenty years older than she; but she’s all the more interesting for that because there’s so much more to her personality than meets the eye. Mr. Wither is, as described above, a frightful bore; Madge is a middle-aged woman who’s never totally grown up (as seen in her childlike delight over her new dog Polo); and Tina is a woman just dying to be loved. Well, she gets her wish, but not in the way she expected... the only character I didn’t tally love (for good and for worse) was Victor Spring, who was a bit stereotypical; and every time Saxon, the chauffer, appeared, I kept thinking of Thomas from Upstairs, Downstairs. Also, the plot moved a bit too quickly in some places. However, this is a well-written, funny novel; I actually found myself guffawing out loud in several places. This book is definitely worth a read if you enjoy this type of novel. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I haven’t read Stella Gibbons’s other, better-known book, Cold Comfort Farm; a problem that I should remedy as soon as possible.

Review: Howards End is On the Landing, by Susan Hill

Pages: 234

Original date of publication: 2009

My edition: 2009 (Profile Books)

Why I decided to read: it was recommended to me through Amazon UK

How I acquired my copy: Amazon

Howards End is on the Landing is a short collection of essays in which Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black, went on a search through her house to find a book—and found hundreds that she hadn’t read, and dozens more that she had forgotten she owned but wanted to return to. She then resolved to read more books from her ever-growing collection, making a vow to not buy any more books (more power to her!) There were a couple of caveats: she would still accept books from publishers, for example.

The essays in this book aren’t organized in any particular way, so Hill’s discourses tend to be a bit random at times; but her writing style is superb, and she writes well about the books she loves and doesn’t love. Be warned, however, that there’s a fair amount of literary name-dropping (everything from “EM Forster once dropped a book on my foot when I was a student at King’s College” to various authors she’s been acquainted with over hr literary career), which sort of put me off after a while.

There are also a number of inconsistencies (her husband is a Shakespearean scholar, yet Hill dismisses other Elizabethan poets as not worthy of her time because people have never heard of them; she claims she’ll never read a Richard and Judy selection, so why does she keep buying them?). Hill tends to dismiss certain types of books (fantasy, historical fiction) and Australian and Candian authors as not worthy of her time, and her tastes tend to run towards 20^th century fiction for the most part. She claims that Jane Austen isn’t her cup of tea (different strokes for different folks, I guess) and tends to promote authors that you might not have heard of—which is good in a way, as she’s given me a number of new-to-me authors to track down; and she’s also inspired me to read more from my TBR pile (she mentions FM Mayor’s the Rector’s Daughter, which has been on my TBR list for a while, and I’ve had Dorothy Sayers’s The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club on my bookshelves for a long time as well).

I also wish that Hill had given us a full list of the books she read during her year—and that she’d read more from her unread pile (it’s fine to revisit the books you’ve always loved, I do that sometimes, but surely there should also be an effort to broaden your horizons, so to speak?). Hill does give a list of the forty books she’d take with her to a desert island—the Bible, for example, or Wuthering Heights. I also wish there had been an index of the books mentioned in this one, as she mentions perhaps hundreds, either in depth or in passing. Despite my reservations about this book, I did enjoy parts of it. It's perhaps just not the best book about books there is to be had.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MzB of Should Be Reading (though it’s going on tour this upcoming month). Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

--Grab your current read

--Open to a random page

--share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

Be sure NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

--Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

“It was through his wife Mr. Herbert got into touch with the village and the village with him. Her beaming kindness smoothed away the resentment sometimes roused by his tart or sarcastic retorts.”

--From The Rector’s Daughter, by FM Mayor

Review: Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, by DE Stevenson

Pages: 331

Original date of publication:

My edition: 2010 (Bloomsbury Group)

Why I decided to read: It was offered through LTER; and while I didn't win a copy, it inspired me to track down a copy to read.

How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com

Mrs. Tim of the Regiment is a novel about the adventures of Hester Christie, army wife and mother. The book covers a period of six months, starting with the family’s move to Scotland (and all the headaches that that entails) and culminating with a fortnight in the Highlands, during which time Hester plays fairy godmother to a number of couples.

Mrs. Tim was based on the diary that DE Stevenson kept; she was herself an army wife, and when she showed her diary to a friend, the friend suggested that she spruce things up and publish it. Therefore, Hester’s “voice” is very much like what DE Stevenson was like—her wit sparkles, and her characters jump off the page (even the family car has a name and personality!). As Hester says, her sense of humor is “obstreperous,”—but obstreperous in a good way! Although written 70 years ago, the novel reads as though written just yesterday—it’s that fresh and relevant even today. In some ways, Hester’s diary reminds me of Bridget Jones’s Diary, if Bridget had been a 1920s military wife…

The novel focuses on the daily, trivial things, but the climax of the book (if you can call in that} happens in June, when Hester takes Betty to the Highlands. There’s almost a magical feel to the book as Hester both intentionally and unintentionally tries to fix things. Add in the legend of two long-dead lovers and a family feud (a la Romeo and Juliet), and you’ve got the makings of a memorable holiday. Mrs. Tim of the Regiment is the first in a quartet, though the other three books are sadly out of print and ridiculously expensive to buy online. I hope Bloomsbury will get around to reprinting them soon, because Mrs. Tim of the Regiment is a wholly enjoyable book.

The Sunday Salon

Another really quiet weekend here. This past week has been quite busy; I spent most of the week tying up loose ends at my old job before moving on to the new. They haven’t hired anyone for the old job, but I spent a part of the week teaching an extern how to do the job. I also passed on another part of my work to someone else. The problem is that I was doing the work of three people in my old job, so finding people to do all of that was the challenge. My parents took me out to dinner on Friday to celebrate, and that was really nice.

I’m looking forward to starting my new job tomorrow, though. I received a very nice e-mailed welcome from the out-going person who holds the job and a couple of people in the department, and it seems as though I’m really going to like it. I think in the future I’m going to change things up a bit; instead of going to the gym after work, I think I may go in the morning. I tried doing it that way one time a couple of weeks ago and actually enjoyed it (?!) so this might work out better, actually. And since my work hours at the new job are going to be later than the old (I don’t have to be at work until 7:30), this actually might work out well. I’m not a morning person, but my body seems to function best first thing in the morning.

I’ve not done much reading this week, but I did manage to finish The Sixth Surrender, by Hana Samek Norton (terrible; the readers over at HFO have been tearing this book apart), The Devil’s Horse, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles; and then today I read in its entirety Henrietta’s War: New From the Home Front, 1939-1942, by Joyce Dennys. The latter by far was my favorite read of the week, so much so that I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s a short novel told in epistolary form, and it’s similar in some ways to Good Evening, Mrs. Craven. I do like the books put out by the Bloomsbury Group; I just wish that they would reprint books faster than they do!

I’m between books at the moment, but I think I’ll read FM Mayor’s The Rector’s Daughter next. I was going to read Into the Wilderness, by Sarah Donati, but I think I’ll wait for it. The good thing about my new job is that the commute will be longer (by train), so I’ll get more time to read during the daytime!

Friday Finds

Here’s a look at what’s come into my home recently:

Amberwell, by DE Stevenson. Having read the two of her books that are in print, I was anxious to read more by her. It’s too bad that most of her books are out of print…

Poison, by Sara Poole. An ARC of a novel set in 1492 Rome.

The Sixth Surrender, by Hana Samek Norton. Another ARC; the novel is set in the early 13^th century. I’m most of the way through it now and the story really runs away with itself in the second half.

Every Eye, by Isobel English. My Persephone for July.

Some Bloomsbury Group classics: Henrietta’s War, Henrietta Sees it Through, Let’s Kill Uncle, Mrs. Ames, and the Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris/New York omnibus.

A bunch of Virago Modern classics have forced themselves into my house over the past month or so:

Diana of the Crossways, by George Meredith.

The Edwardians, by Vita Sackville-West.

The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth Von Arnim

The Gentlewomen, by Laura Taylor

The Land of Spices, Kate O’Brien

The Orchid House, by Phyllis Shand Allfrey

The Rector’s Daughter, by FM Mayor

South Riding, by Winifred Holtby

The Three Sisters, by May Sinclair

The year Before Last, by Kay Boyle

Review: Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes

Pages: 203

Original date of publication: 1939-1945

My edition: 2008 (Persephone)

Why I decided to read: browsing on the Persephone website

How I acquired my copy: Persephone subscription, June 2010

Good Evening Mrs. Craven is a collection of 21 short stories that Mollie Panter-Downes wrote for The New Yorker during the war years. Although she was English and lived in Surrey for most of her life, her work both as a short story writer and as a journalist has been virtually forgotten in England; and yet she was a prolific writer, writing over 800 pieces for The New Yorker during her career.

Mollie Panter-Downes’s stories are vignettes that focus on short moments in the day of average Britons during the war. None of these people is particularly remarkable, but they live in extraordinary times, and how they cope with that is what’s so fascinating about this collection. From country housewives serving on Red Cross committees and housing evacuees, to young working women surviving the London Blitz, to a spinster who fantasizes about the food she can’t have, to an old Major who looks forward with relish to the fighting (even though he can’t join in), these stories are funny and poignant at the same time.

The characters in these stories are very loosely connected to one another, and only one appears more than once (Mrs. Ramsay, the housewife, whose reflections on her circumstances are brilliantly funny; I wish Panter-Downes had written more stories featuring her). The most moving of these stories is the title story, “Good Evening Mrs. Craven,” in which a mistress (mistakenly called Mrs. Craven by a maitre d’ at a restaurant) has to mourn her lover in secret. These stories have been published here in the order that they were published, and throughout the book you can see the war unfold. Although each story is only a few pages, the characters are very well rounded; in fact, there’s so much material here that the author could have written a full-length novel centering around any one of them. I don’t normally read much in the way of short stories, but this collection is top-notch.

This is Persephone no. 8 Endpaper below.

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MzB of Should Be Reading (though it’s going on tour this upcoming month). Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

--Grab your current read

--Open to a random page

--share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

Be sure NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

--Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I’m reading two books today:

“The cloth was substantial yet sensuous, worthy indeed of a royal court, a place she would not likely see, Juliana handed it to Mathea.”

-From The Sixth Surrender, by Hana Samek Norton

“It was said of the Exchange in Manchester that if you strolled there long enough you would meet everyone you knew. Sophie must have left just too erly, for it was in the street that she encountered Jesmond Farraline.”

Review: The King's General, by Daphne Du Maurier

Pages: 440

Original date of publication: 1946

My edition: 2009 (Sourcebooks)

Why I decided to read: I was interested in the premise of the book

How I acquired my copy: Borders, February 2010

Whenever I read a book by Daphne Du Maurier, I always want to go out and buy all of her books currently in print. Her books generally fall into two categories: suspense (like Rebecca or The Scapegoat); or historical fiction, like (Frenchman’s Creek or The King’s General); or something in between, like The House on the Strand.

The King’s General is set during the English Civil War. Honor Harris falls in love with Richard Grenvile, but her planned marriage to him falls short when she has a rising accident. Many years later, Richard is the King’s General in the West, and Honor is making shift at Menabilly, a house built and owned by the Rashleigh family. Daphne Du Maurier brings a piece of Cornish history to life as Richard and Honor’s stormy and often complicated relationship plays out.

Honor and Richard’s relationship isn’t what you might expect. It’s passionate, but at no time in the novel do they ever consummate it. Instead, everything is pretty much hidden under the surface, and there’s a lot that they don’t say about the past and what happened between them. I’m not sure why Honor cut him off completely after her accident, but it adds a lot of suspense to their relationship.

The historical parts of the novel are well researched, though there was a point in the middle where the plot suffered in favor of the Cornish rebellions. The novel is told from the Royalist point of view, but the author isn’t terribly partial to one side or another. There’s also a kind of mystery here, too, involving the house and mysterious visitors in the night and secret hiding spaces. It’s vintage Du Maurier, and she does this type of suspense very well in all of her novels.

Some really wonderful characters enhance the novel’s plot. Honor may be a cripple, but she’s not bitter about it, nor is she nostalgic for times gone by. She’s straightforward and honest, and she has a habit of listening in on conversations. Her crippled state makes people notice her less, and that’s why she’s the perfect character to narrate this story. I loved the tension between Honor and her sister-in-law, the grasping and selfish Gartred Grenvile, with whom she’s always playing literal and figurative games of Patience. Really, this is a well-written novel, and it’s now one of my favorite of Du Maurier’s novels. I wish Sourcebooks would reprint her books at a faster rate! Maybe they’ll reprint The Glass Blowers soon?

The Sunday Salon

For those of you who live in the United States, happy Fourth of July! I have a long weekend off from work, so I’ve been spending this rather humid weekend relaxing—reading, watching TV, etc. My sister has been in town from New York for the weekend, and she goes back tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I’ve got tomorrow off, and I’ll probably be doing the same things I’ve been doing for the past two days!

June was a busy month for me in terms of, well, everything: I was offered and trained for me new job (which I officially start on Monday the 12^th). They’re searching for a replacement for my current job, which is no easy task considering there’s a lot to do. But I’m really looking forward to my new job; at first it’s going to be mostly clerical work, but there’s a lot of room for advancement as well.

In terms of reading, I read 15 books this month, many of which were hits with me. I discovered Virago Modern Classics, which I’ve really been enjoying, and I’ve acquired a whole bunch of them, so I think July should be a good reading month as well. My favorites reads of the month were Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, by DE Stevenson, nightingale Wood, by Stella Gibbons, Good Evening Mrs. Craven, by Mollie Panter-Downes, The King’s General, by Daphne Du Maurier, and The Crowded Street, by Winifred Holtby.

Coming up this month I’ve got a few review copies that I’ve got to get out of the way; and then I can get around to reading what I really want to read. Currently I’m reading The Sixth Surrender, by Hana Samek Norton, a novel set in the 13^th century (about Eleanor of Aquitaine and King John, although they’re not the main characters). I’ve not read very far into it, but it’s not really grabbing me as a great read so far—certainly not in the leagues of Sharon Kay Penman or Elizabeth Chadwick, though I think they’re authors that are hard to beat!

Review: The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno, by Ellen Bryson

Pages: 331

Original date of publication: 2010

My edition: 2010 (Henry Holt)

Why I decided to read: it was offered on Amazon Vine

How I acquired my copy: same, May 2010

Set in New York City in 1865, The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno is set amongst PT Barnum’s Museum of Human Curiosities. The story is narrated by Bartholomew Fortuno, the Museum’s Thin Man, who notices a strange woman entering the Museum late one night. His curiosity leads to an assignment from Barnum, who asks Bartholomew to shadow the mysterious woman.

It’s a good premise, and I enjoyed the setting of the novel: I love reading novels set in historical New York, But the author’s writing style is uneven; sometime’s she’s erudite about the nature of Human Curiosities and their relationship with the rest of the world, but sometimes the writing is clunky (“Abigail something or another,” I said, remember only the poor girl’s first name”). There’s a heavy amount of foreshadowing in this novel, so much so that the author practically told you in advance what was going to happen. There are so many references to how thin Bartholomew is that it got really old really quickly.

In addition, although the book is a quick read, the plot moves at a snail’s pace, leading me to lose interest at several points in the narrative. The author sets the mystery up well, but this book wasn’t all that suspenseful for me once I’d figured out who the mysterious woman was. The book is punctuated by fake notices which are a clever way of telling the reader how much time has passed, but these too became tiresome after a while because they hampered the flow of the story for me.

As I read, I found that I couldn’t quite connect to the characters in the way I wanted to. Bartholomew’s obsession with the strange woman wasn’t all that believable to me. I agree with another reviewer that his relationship with her seemed downright weird; I just didn’t see what drew them together. Unfortunately, this isn't a book I'd recommend.