Archive | April, 2010

Monthly Round-up: April 2010

29 Apr

Monthly Round-up for April 2010

Reviewed

Sanditon: Jane Austen’s Last Novel Completed by Jane Austen and ‘Another Lady’
Love’s Shadow by Ada Leverson (for LibraryThing Early Reviewers)
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
The Watsons by Jane Austen
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

To be reviewed

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Searching For Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Currently Reading

Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence

The Monthly Round-up is a regular feature where I list all the books I’ve read during the month.

More than an eligible princess

23 Apr

I love reading fantasy novels that feature strong female characters. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is a serious bias towards male characters in fantasy, not that I have anything against the brave, heroic, princes and knights, but I like to see a girl who does something more than serve as the damsel/object of desire. Last summer, I posted a request for recommendations on Yahoo!Answers and I was introduced to the novels of Patricia C. Wrede, which feature some of the best “girls who do things” in fantasy.

This week, I found copies of Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles in a used bookstore and they’re wonderful! I couldn’t put Dealing with Dragons down and Searching for Dragons is just as engaging. I’ll write up a proper post on the series when I’m done, but I think Dragons has definitely earned its place on my shelf (a coveted spot indeed, as I’ve been shelf-cleaning)

Soup, Spools, and Light

19 Apr

It’s not easy being different, but sometimes all we need is a good bowl of soup to overcome our differences… at least in the world of the little mouse Despereaux.

Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux is one of those books that I would have loved as a kid. It’s such a classic sort of tale, the story of a mouse whose big ears and big heart lead him on a quest for love and honor. Like many children’s stories, Despereaux is at once simple and profound, raising issues of good and evil, neglect, suffering, misguided devotion, and individuality in a manner reminiscent of the best fairy tales.

Despereaux is a quick read with a quirky set of characters, an old-fashioned, ever present narrator, and a happy ending. I enjoyed it and it was perfect for my rainy day at home.

The Watsons

18 Apr

The Watsons is one of Jane Austen’s unfinished novels–the tale of Emma Watson, a young lady returning home for the first time after spending fourteen years in the care of her well-to-do aunt. Austen began the novel around 1803 but abandoned it not long after. The reason behind Austen’s choice to leave The Watsons unfinished is unknown, but it is commonly held that the death of her father may have prompted her to leave off working on the piece.

Like many of Austen’s works, the reader is introduced to most of the principal characters in the first chapters of the novel. We soon learn that Emma Watson is returning home after a fourteen year-long stay in her aunt’s home. Accustomed to the well-appointed style of living that she enjoyed in her aunt’s home, Emma is somewhat unprepared for her family’s reduced circumstances. A stranger among her brothers and sisters, Emma tries to make the most of the situation, but soon finds herself preferring the company of her infirm father to the studied civility of her siblings and their fashionable neighbors. And that is where Emma’s story abruptly ends.

My copy of the text is only 40 pages long, leaving me wanting more. While several writers have completed their vision of Austen’s Sanditon, I have only been able to find 2 continuations of The Watsons–The Watsons by Jane Austen and Another Lady (Helen Baker) and The Younger Sister by Austen’s niece, Catherine Anne Hubback (copies of both can be found on Amazon, though The Younger Sister appears as a facsimile of the original published in 1850).

While brief, the fragment does raise several issues regarding the place of unmarried daughters, especially those without fortunes to attract eligible gentlemen. Here is one of my favorite passages:

Your lordship thinks we always have our own way. That is a point on which ladies and gentlemen have long disagreed–but without pretending to decide it, I may say that there are some circumstances which even women cannot controul [sic].–Female economy will do a great deal my Lord, but it cannot turn a small income into a large one.

From the little we have to go on, it seems to me that The Watsons would have had elements similar to those explored in Sense and Sensibility with regards to poverty and womanhood (and the selfishness of brothers). We’ll never know. I will, however, look into those completions that I found.

Courtney and Jane

18 Apr

I gave in to the allure of the bargain bin and got myself copies of Laurie Viera Rigler’s Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and  Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict.

Confessions and Rude Awakenings are more like companion novels than prequel/sequel, so each can be read independent of the other.  In Confessions, we meet Courtney Stone/Jane Mansfield, a modern LA girl who unwittingly finds herself transported into the body of an early 19th century country gentleman’s daughter. Suffering from a broken heart, Courtney indulged her woes with Jane Austen and vodka, a potent combination. When she finds herself 200 years in the past, in Jane’s body, she concludes that she is merely in the throes of a vivid dream–the result of a little too much Austen. A run-in with a country doctor’s scalpel soon dispels that notion and Courtney finds that she must come to terms with the less-than-glamourous aspects of life in Jane Austen’s England while making sense of the life that she has taken over.

But where is Jane Mansfield while Courtney stone is inhabiting her body? Rude Awakenings answers just that. When prim and proper Jane awakens in Courtney’s LA apartment and finds herself alone in the company of a strange gentleman, what is she to think? Like Courtney, Jane thinks herself asleep until she finds that her situation is no dream, and that she must come to terms with the disparity between 21st century Los Angeles and her quiet country life. Never mind that the life that she must now command is in a right state, Jane must learn to navigate the ins and outs of modern life and make sense of Courtney’s complicated love life.

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This is a fun set of novels. Jane/Courtney remind me of a pair of Bridget Joneses with an Austen twist. I did, however, enjoy Confessions a bit more than Rude Awakenings. While both heroines must learn to inhabit their new bodies and societies, reading Jane’s highly detailed exploration of 21st century technology was not as entertaining as Courtney’s discovery of the less than genteel realities of 19th century living. I also found Jane(Courtney’s) friends, Anna and Paula, a bit irritating and much preferred Courtney(Jane’s) friend, Mary.  That said, I did enjoy Viera Rigler’s treatment of Jane’s burgeoning feminism and her desire to establish herself as an independent woman with a “competency”. So… I like Courtney’s story in Confessions, but I also like Jane’s feminist qualities in Rude Awakenings.

From Trafalgar House to Knightsbridge

13 Apr

After reading Jane Austen’s unfinished last novel, Sanditon, for the Austenprose read-along, I was left with the need to know more about the characters that populated that quiet seaside resort town. I had put off reading Sanditon for that very reason–I knew that when I read it, I would be left wanting more and there would be no more to be had. Like the last bite of a wonderful desert, I would cherish the sweetness of that last bite but would be left unsatisfied. Like Austen’s other novels, Sanditon offers a look at the little dramas that mark small-town living. However, this time, Austen takes her readers away from the country to the coast when the observant Charlotte Heywood is invited to stay with the Parkers in their home in Sanditon, a budding seaside resort town that Mr. Parker hopes will become as lucrative as the more well-known bathing spots. In Sanditon, Charlotte is introduced to a fascinating cast of characters, from hypochondriacs to impoverished, but highly romantic wards. Sadly, we only get to know these characters briefly before the fragment ends.

However, in 1975, Marie Dobbs, under the pen name “Another Lady,” took up the challenge to complete Austen’s Sanditon and the result is a delightful and satisfying treat. Another Lady takes up her pen where Austen left off and continues the tale. There is no jarring shift in the narrative style, Another Lady adopts the language and style of Austen, developing the plot and characters in a careful and believable manner. Her Sanditon has all the fun and novelty of Catherine Morland’s adventures, Fanny Price’s astute observations, and the eventfulness Emma’s of close-knit town life.

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After finishing Sanditon, I was in the mood for another social comedy, so I took up Ada Leverson’s Love’s Shadow (received from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program). A close friend of Oscar Wilde’s, Leverson’s style and tone is similar to Wilde’s biting, quick wit. Love’s Shadow offers an engaging look at the ludicrous things we do for love. Like Wilde, Leverson offers a meddlesome cast of characters whose actions only serve to confuse one another. At the heart of the story are the Ottleys, Bruce and Edith, a very ordinary middle-class Edwardian couple wishing for a little more excitement in their very ordinary lives. Edith’s friend, Hyacinth Verney has all the excitement and independence that Edith craves, but only wants for the attention of Cecil Reeve, a young man who only has eyes for a much older woman who refuses to indulge his fancy.

Love’s Shadow is a fast-paced, amusing romp, Leverson revealing the foibles of her characters in a series of vignettes. It almost reminds me of Colette’s Claudine and Annie, particularly the dissatisfaction that seems to accompany love as experienced by Edith and Hyacinth.

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