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Mistress Pat

16 Jul

Mistress Pat by L.M. Montgomery

Mistress Pat picks up a shortly after the end of Pat of Silver Bush. At ease in her role as mistress of Silver Bush while her mother recovers from the surgery that left her terribly weakened, Pat spends her days in the company of her younger sister Rae, who refuses to go by the old nickname “Cuddles” now that she’s all grown up, and the ever indomitable Judy Plum, whose stories continue to retain their fantastical charm for all Pat has grown too old to continue to believe in witches and fairies. Now 20, Pat has learned to accept the inevitability of change, though she still dreads its arrival. For Pat, there is still no better place than Silver Bush and no beau whose charms can compare with the charms of her beloved home. Beaus may come and go, their company making for a nice time, but Pat knows that it will take more than a good time with a cordial companion to make her want to get married and leave the familiarity of SIlver Bush.

Like the Green Gables series, the two Silver Bush novels cover a lengthy span of time. Mistress Pat alone spans an 11 year time period, and Pat is only around 7 when she is first introduced in Pat of Silver Bush. My calculations are terrible, but I believe Pat is 27 or 28 when the novel ends…perhaps even 30, there is much speculation on the great-aunts’ part that Pat is permanently “on the shelf”. However, I never felt like the story dragged; Pat is such a lively, spirited character with incredibly modern (dare I say feminist?) sensibilities that I felt like I was getting to know a dear friend’s life story. Pat and Judy’s friendship is as lovely as ever, and her relationship with the grown up Rae adds a new dimension to Pat’s character as we get to see her interacting with an equally independent and modern sister. The Gardiners continue to be a funny and fussy bunch, but Pat can now manage her relatives without feeling the least bit downtrodden. There is a good dose of melodrama in the story, but it wouldn’t be an LMM novel without it. Thwarted loves and misalliances abound, but they are in the background and serve to counter Pat’s own level-headed attitude towards marriage. A few scenes are also quite saddening, particularly in the final chapters when Pat must face the inevitable loss of several dear friends. Nevertheless, Pat’s is a hopeful and optimistic story, though bittersweet at times, and I feel very glad to have found copies of these two wonderful books.

Tipping the Velvet

11 Jul

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

Nancy never imagined her life would amount to much; as an oyster girl in her family’s shop, she spends her days covered in brine, shucking oysters and serving up oyster teas. The highlight of Nancy’s week is going to the local theater to watch the acts, but there is one act that strikes her like no other. When Nancy first sees Kitty Butler’s masher act, she finds herself yearning for something she can’t quite name. What does it mean that she feels a pull every time she sees Kitty? Nancy doesn’t know, but she begins to visit the theater regularly to watch Kitty perform. When Tony, her sister’s beau and the friend who gets Nancy into the shows for free, tells her that Kitty wants to meet the girl in the box, Nancy is arrested with nerves. It is a meeting that changes the course of her life forever and places Nancy on a path that will take her far from the oyster barrels of Whistable shore.

I first learned about Tipping the Velvet when I was working on an essay on female bildungsroman… it was a proposal for an imaginary thesis that I never did write, but the idea always stuck and I’ve been especially intrigued by such stories ever since. Tipping the Velvet is just such as story, the coming-of-age of Nancy Astley, oyster girl from Whistable, into a proud “tom” who finds that she be exactly who she wants to be.

From the very beginning, I can just imagine an elderly Nancy telling her tale to an enthralled audience, her stage skills evoking a sense of drama in her listeners and making them wonder at the highs and lows of her journey from obedient oyster girl to inadvertent Socialist. I watched the film adaptation of the novel last year, and though I sometimes feel that watching the film first detracts from my reading experience (being spoiled in advance and all), Nancy’s unique narrative voice kept me engaged in the story despite my knowing where the plot was going.

I still find that Fingersmith is my favorite Waters novel, but Tipping is now a close second.

On a side note… I started reading A Tale of Two Cities but it hasn’t really grabbed me yet. Can someone sell me on this read? I haven’t had many good experiences with Dickens, but I remember liking a film version of this when I was in high school and wanted to give it a shot. Should Dickens and I part ways, or should I keep reading?

Paris 1934

1 Jul

Paris 1934: Victory in Retreat by Paul A. Myers

Sandrine Durand is a vibrant young student and journalist covering the political and fashion scenes of Paris in 1934. Working for both a French and an American paper, Sandrine sees two sides to every story, reporting the straight facts for the Americans and the details for the French. Saucy and flirtatious, Sandrine is coming into her own and establishing her independence amidst the free-thinking citizens of Paris, but she is no ingenue. When opportunity strikes, Sandrine takes it.

The novel’s rich detail evokes lively, early 20th century photographs of Parisian cafe scenes and cityscapes, bringing the era to life. The novel opens with mounting political turmoil, but Sandrine’s presence adds a fun and lively quality to the story, balancing the dryer facts of the historical events that serve as the novel’s background. Sandrine’s French and American friends prove to be just as lively and intriguing as the hopeful journalist; the energetic bistro scenes between Sandrine and the American journalists at the Oasis were some of my favorite moments in the novel.

The first half of the novel takes some time to develop; much of the action revolves around a series of civil uprisings that occurred in Paris early in 1934. The story picks up when Sandrine and her friends are introduced. I found that I enjoyed the social aspects of the novel more than the political history, but I appreciated the insight that the historical details provided as I was unfamiliar with the history of Paris’s pre-WWII politics.

I received a review copy of Paris 1934 from the Historical Novel Society Online. HNS Online publishes a quarterly column on self-published and author subsidized publications. Paris 1934 can be purchased from Amazon.com.

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On a side note… to avoid any self-plagiarism issues that might arise, I’m going to hold off on posting the reviews I’ve written for my class readings until grades are in.

Also, I’m playing around with my review format… I think adding the title at the beginning of the post rather than in the review will make the reviews more search and reader friendly.

The Slave Dancer

23 May

I am taking a class on multicultural materials for children and young adults, and the first assignment is to read two selections related to African-American culture. I don’t usually post on the readings that I complete for school, but since these are mostly YA books, I thought they might be of interest. My first selection from the reading list was Paula Fox’s The Slave Dancer.

When his mother asks him to fetch some candles from his Aunt’s house, Jessie Bollier did not imagine that he would soon find himself aboard a slaver bound for Africa. Pressed into service, Jessie is captured for his skills as a fife player; Captain Cawthorne needs a slave dancer, and he is going to have to play that part or face the consequences of defiance. Aboard The Moonlight, Jessie learns much about the cruelties of the slave trade, and the evils that drive men to torment one another without cause. Though disgusted by the situation aboard the ship, Jessie is unprepared to witness the horrors that accompany the trafficking of slaves. Tormented by his role as slave dancer, Jessie comes to hate everyone aboard the ship–the captain, the crew, the slaves, and himself–everyone that reminds him of his helplessness. But when the ship is wrecked during a storm, Jessie finds the strength to swim to freedom in the company of a young slave boy. Jessie soon learns to communicate with the boy and finds a way to deal with the consequences of his life-altering journey aboard The Moonlight.

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I found that Jessie’s story does not focus on the experience of the slaves as much as on his perception of the twisted sense of morality and justice that drives his fellow crew members.  While the narrative is grim, Fox does not dwell too much on the conditions of the slaves. The amount of description is appropriate for the intended 10-14 year old audience, and the issues raised by Jessie’s account can serve as a conversation starter for a discussion on ethics and compassion.

The Count of Monte Cristo

17 May

After years spent on my to read shelf, The Count of Monte Cristo has finally been read! I was 16 when someone recommended that I read it, but though I soon bought a copy, I put it off until now. Maybe it was because I’m not the biggest fan of adventure/revenge tales, at least not when it comes to reading material. I’m still not. I can’t say that I really enjoyed the novel. It wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t as intriguing as I was led to believe. This is one of those rare cases when I find myself admitting that I enjoy the film more than the book… I actually really like the 2002 version with Jim Caviezel as the Count. Now that I’ve read the source, I find that what I like about the film is that it condenses all the main plot elements, draws them together, and eliminates the subplots littered throughout the novel. And there are a lot of subplots.

To summarize…

Edmond Dantes is a humble sailor. His father loves him, and he is betrothed to the beautiful Mercedes. When the captain of his ship becomes ill and dies, Edmond is charged with securing a letter from the Isle of Elba, where the fallen Emperor resides. Edmond is a faithful servant and completes his mission, but greed and avarice dog his steps and he becomes the victim of a cruel plot to separate him from all he cherishes. Edmond is sent to perish in the dungeon of the Chateau D’If, where he begins to lose hope until he meets a cunning Abbe who becomes his unlikely benefactor.

Reborn as the Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond lays a plot to destroy those who would destroy him…

Monte Cristo is brimful of Hidden Treasure! Poison! Cunning Plans! More Poison! And Foiled Plots!

It is not the most carefully crafted mystery, but it is entertaining. It’s very dramatic, classic fluff. And this review is mostly fluff because I find I don’t have much to say about it, but I’m quite proud that I finally got it off the shelf. It was alright; not the most absorbing read, but I enjoyed some of the threads–Haydee’s story, for instance.

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.

A piece of history

26 Mar

As the end of the semester nears, I am finding myself spending more time reading academic writing, but I managed to squeeze in Pamela de Leon’s The Savage River Valley, which I received for review for the Historical Novels Review Online.

My official review will be published by HNR online, but here is a more personal reaction.

When I started reading The Savage River Valley, I did not think I was going to enjoy it. I found myself losing patience with the meandering tone of the preface/first chapter, but the narrative soon picked up after the second chapter. The blurb on the back cover makes the story sound like a paranormal historical novel–Clara, a woman from 21st century New York spiritually travels back in time to the year 1601 to witness a Mohican death ceremony.  However, Clara’s spiritual quest reads like a secondary subplot, rather than the focus of the novel. The narrative really comes alive when the reader is introduced to the Mohicans, particularly the children of Tah-neh-wa–Minnah and White Feather. The description of Mohican life is rich in detail and well-written. Minnah is an interesting and sympathetic character, her ability to see beyond the mundane allowing her to perceive the bonds that connect her family to the land and the danger that will come from across the great water.

De Leon also adds an element of mystery to the tale, shifting the narrative from life among the Mohicans to life aboard a Dutch trading vessel bound for the shores of the Hudson, the greed, scorn, and lust of the sailors a marked contrast to the Mohican’s harmonious, co-existence.

I have mixed feeling about the novel; I found myself engrossed by the historical plot, but felt that Clara’s part in the narrative seemed superfluous. I would have preferred the novel without the spiritual quest. It reminds me of when I watched “Julie and Julia,” I preferred the Julia without the Julie.

A secret desperate to be told

15 Mar

Do you mean to say, that if I believe in your story as you have told it, then it is as good as if it were true?

- from The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

What if Jane Austen’s long lost memoirs were waiting to be discovered, tucked away behind an attic wall at Chawton Manor House? What if Austen’s romantic heros were inspired by someone who was dear to her? That is the premise behind Syrie James’s beautifully written, fictional memoir. Carefully weaving together details from Austen’s letters and novels, as well as early biographical accounts of Austen’s life, James makes the reader believe that this tale of love found and lost really was written by Austen herself in the months leading up to her untimely death.

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I’m in a bit behind on school work at the moment, so this review is shorter than most.

The Lost Memoirs was a truly engrossing read and made me yearn to re-read Sense and Sensibility after reading about Jane’s struggle to edit what would be her first published novel. I was eager to read this book after reading The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë and I was just as pleased with James’s treatment of Austen’s memoirs as I was with Brontë’s diaries. Overall, a great tribute to the life of Jane Austen and a worthy addition to any collection of Austenesque works.

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