Tag: 19th century

Review 2443: After Sappho

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I read After Sappho for my James Tait Black project. It is experimental, written in short vignettes that jump around in time and from person to person. It tells the stories of lesbian women, mostly literary figures, trying to make a place for themselves. It begins in the late 19th century with women fascinated by the poet Sappho. Some of them study Ancient Greek, some dress like ancient Greeks or re-enact ancient plays, some travel to Greece.

The novel is vividly written in first person plural or in third person, at times slyly ironic, sometimes engaged in word play, often invigorating and with lots of sexual metaphors. It is interesting, telling of repressive laws against women, particularly in Italy, and reporting actual aggressively misogynistic “scientific” or political statements by men. It goes on to tell of the accomplishments and tragedies and love affairs of its protagonists, largely ignoring the men in their lives. For example, from this novel, you wouldn’t know there was a Leonard Woolf, just a Vita Sackville-West.

Although I found the novel very interesting at first, there were so many characters that I couldn’t keep track of them or remember which events happened to which ones. I could only track the ones I was already familiar with. For example, the novel begins and ends with Lina Poletti, even though she disappears about halfway through, so she is obviously important to Schwartz, but by the end I couldn’t remember her. I felt like I needed a chart.

And yet, I feel that with more character definition, I might have remembered all of them, but these short vignettes that tell of an activity or something they said didn’t really provide a cohesive picture to me of what the women were like.

So, I applaud this novel’s daring devices, but they didn’t really work for me.

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Review 2436: The Dark Fantastic

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I was surprised by the direction that this novel took, but I would have been less surprised if I hadn’t missed a note from the author. It explained that although the characters were made up, the novel was inspired by events that took place at her great-grandparents’ home in rural Indiana.

In post-Civil War Terre Haute, Indiana, Judith Amory is defying convention by attending Macbeth without a male escort. She has recently been dismissed from her teaching position for being too advanced in teaching George Eliot, so she can’t really afford to go, but she thinks of herself as refined and cultured and is excited to see the performance of Edwin Booth.

At the performance, she ends up breaking convention again by speaking to her neighbor, a young man who has journeyed in from his farm just to see the play. Judith finds him handsome, prosperous looking, and eager to discuss literature, perfect for her idea of a husband—until he says he has a wife and three children. Then he mentions that the nearby town needs a teacher.

Judith is not dismayed. First, she intends to have that job even though it’s a bit beneath her. Then, she intends to have that man, Richard Tomlinson.

How she gets her Becky Sharpish way is one thing, but what happens afterward is quite unexpected. This is a pretty good, darkish novel that dabbles in the supernatural. Echard is good at setting her scene and presenting the dynamics of the Tomlinson family. She’s good at depicting the main characters, although I lost track of some of the secondary ones. This is a good one for those who like darkish tales. Warning for the politically correct—the one Black character is depicted stereotypically as isn’t surprising for a novel published in 1947.

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Review 2430: The Other Side of Mrs. Wood

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In 1873 London, Mrs. Wood is the most successful medium in society. She is worried about the future, though, because her patrons are getting older and at 40, she doesn’t seem to be appealing to the younger folks. To make things worse, Mr. Larson, who takes care of her money, has just informed her that a large investment in a mine has been lost. Things are going to be tight until some ships he invested in arrive.

Mrs. Wood cuts where she can, but unfortunately her profession requires her to have an appearance of respectable wealth.

A girl has been hanging around outside her meetings, which are invitation only. When Mrs. Wood catches her, a Miss Finch, she learns that Miss Finch would like to become her student. She says she has some talent. Without consulting her friend and assistant, Miss Newman, Mrs. Wood decides to take her on, thinking that as a young, attractive girl, she will attract younger patrons.

Miss Newman distrusts Miss Finch, but Mrs. Wood goes ahead with her plans, even excusing some costly mistakes that Miss Finch makes. What she doesn’t know is that Miss Finch’s intentions are bad ones and that she knows more about Mrs. Wood’s past than Mrs. Wood thought anyone knew.

Without remembering any synopsis of this novel, I immediately distrusted Miss Finch, getting a growing feeling of dread that stalled me a bit in my reading. I also felt that the middle part of the novel went on a bit too long. However, when Mrs. Wood pulls herself together, the culmination is very satisfying. I think the very end of the book, though, was a bit unbelievable.

If you read my blog, you know I’m a stickler for accuracy in a historical novel, although not an expert in the details. However, just as a side note, Barker uses the word “twee” on page two, not in conversation but in the main character’s thoughts. I thought that seemed like a modern word, so I looked it up. Sure enough, it was not in use until 1905. Oops!

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Review 2429: The Return of the Native

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A love triangle—or rather a love pentagon—is at the heart of The Return of the Native. I put this novel on my Classics Club list because, although I read it years ago, I could remember nothing about it.

The Return of the Native is Hardy’s most contained novel, all of it taking place on Egdon Heath. The action begins on Guy Fawkes night with the lighting of bonfires. The occupants of one barrow are discussing the supposed marriage that day of Damon Wildeve and Tamsin Yeobright. But Tamsin returns home in distress and unmarried, saying Wildeve made a mistake with the license.

Wildeve has told Tamsin they can marry on Monday, but on that very night he goes to see Eustacia Vye, the girl he dropped for Tamsin. Eustacia is a vibrant, proud woman, and there is no doubt that she is tempted to get revenge on Tamsin.

Tamsin and her aunt view themselves disgraced if the marriage doesn’t come off, even though Wildeve lets weeks go by as he tries to court Eustacia. But Eustacia has heard of the return after years away of Tamsin’s cousin Clym, an educated man who works as a diamond seller in Paris, and sight unseen, she decides he’s the man for her. She hates the heath and wants to go to Paris. So, she misses a rendezvous with Wildeve and he marries Tamsin.

With this ill-conceived marriage, we are halfway set up for the tragedy. Then Eustacia marries Clym even after he tells her he plans to run a school for the poor on the heath, thinking she can easily change his mind after the wedding. The fifth point of the pentagon is occupied by Diggory Venn, a rettleman, or man who sells the red substance used to mark sheep and whose skin and clothing are dyed red from handling it. Although the Introduction to my edition explains that Hardy meant him to be a rather freakish figure about the heath, he ends up using him as a sort of deus ex machina, always in aid of Tamsin.

A strong theme of snobbery is inherent in the novel as we learn (1) that Wildeve was meant for better things but ended up owning the neighborhood pub, (2) that Tamsin turned down a proposal from Venn even when he was a respectable dairyman because he wasn’t good enough for her, (3) that the only suitable suitors for Eustacia in the neighborhood are the morally dubious Wildeve or the unambitious Clym. And Mrs. Yeobright clearly disapproves of both her son’s and niece’s choices.

So, we’re all set up for one of Hardy’s tragedies, in which he lays into the Victorian idea of marriage while making all his characters suffer. I usually like this stuff, but Hardy was forced by his publisher to add on the last section, thus providing a happier ending and making the story seem to last a little too long.

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Review 2423: #1937 Club! An Infamous Army

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I was planning to read Witold Gombrowicz’s Ferdydurke for the 1937 Club, but I got about 70 pages in and just wasn’t in the mood for it. I may never be.

Georgette Heyer is usually a good bet for me, and I conveniently had An Infamous Army on my shelf. I remembered, though, that it was not one of my favorites despite featuring characters from or related to those from some of my favorites. I decided to try to read the novel by pretending I had never read a book by Heyer, just judging it as a historical novel.

The novel is set in Belgium in the summer of 1815, so if you know your history, you know what’s coming up. The military of all the countries allied against Bonaparte are gathered in Brussels, as are the fashionable. Colonel Charles Audley, brother of Lord Worth of Regency Buck, is on Lord Wellington’s staff, so he is busy but occasionally has time to spend with Lord and Lady Worth. And everyone attends the frequent balls and parties.

Judith, Lady Worth, has found a girl she considers perfect for Charles, Lucy Devenish, a pretty, demure, heiress whose only detraction is a vulgar uncle. Society is being scandalized by the behavior of such young women as Lady Caroline Lamb and Lady Barbara Childe, a shocking young widow whose Alastair heritage (see These Old Shades and The Devil’s Cub) has given her quite a temper. Nevertheless, as soon as Charles sets his eye on her, he is in love. Unfortunately, thinks Judith, so is Barbara, and they are engaged in no time.

It’s no surprise that this is a rocky love affair. However, Heyer’s purpose is to depict the Battle of Waterloo and the frivolous months that led up to it.

Heyer was a serious historian, but her books aren’t often serious, and when they are, I miss the brilliant conversations and her humor. Sticking to my decision to try to forget about that, here are my observations. At the parties, there is too much enumeration as Heyer tries to list all the brilliant people attending. I felt like I was reading the beginning of The Iliad when Homer lists all the Greek commanders plus how many ships, men, and horses they brought.

Then, the social season seems to drag on a little too long. Things get going when the war starts, but when Heyer begins explaining troop dispositions and geography, I got lost. I could have used a map. Finally, although parts of the battle are brilliantly described, I felt as if Heyer was trying to include every anecdote she ever read about. There was just too much.

I have read battle scenes in other novels that were so clearly explained that I understood exactly what was going on. Here, there were so many different types of soldiers, so many leaders’ names, most of them only briefly described. There was too much going on for me.

As for the love story, while I didn’t much like Barbara, I was disappointed in how judgmental Judith, who had her own mishaps in her youth, was. It was nice, though, to have a brief appearance of Barbara’s grandparents, the Duke and Duchess of Avon, once Vidal and Mary of The Devil’s Cub.

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Review 2327: Chenneville

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John Chenneville, a Union officer, awakens in a field hospital in Virginia to find that the Civil War is over and he has been lying in a coma for months. He has a healing wound on his head where a chain hit him after an explosion. The war is over, but it takes him months to be well enough for the journey home to Bonnemaison in Missouri on the Mississippi.

Once home, he can tell something bad has happened, but he has to wait for his Uncle Basile to arrive from New Orleans to learn what it is. In the meantime, he occupies himself with trying to restore his ravaged estates. Finally, his uncle tells him that on another one of the family estates further south, his sister, her husband and baby have been murdered. His mother has gone to live with Uncle Basile and has not spoken since the event. After waiting longer to improve his strength and coordination, Chenneville sets off to avenge them.

He finds it is an open secret that they were murdered by a man named Dodd. Dodd was a deputy, and it’s clear that the sheriff is going to do nothing about it but has warned Dodd that someone is after him. After going on a wild goose chase, Chenneville learns that Dodd has fled southwest to Texas. He is killing people on the way, and Chenneville eventually finds himself a suspect for one of the murders.

Jiles seems to like writing about people on journeys, and she likes the setting of post-Civil War Texas. Chenneville finds in East Texas an area once more populous and prosperous, now wild and desolate. This novel is involving and eventful as you wonder how Chenneville can avenge his family without destroying his own life.

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Review 2310: Jane Austen at Home

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Although I read Claire Tomalin’s biography of Jane Austen years ago and thought it was very good, I feel that historian Lucy Worsley’s book provides a more personal look at Austen with more detail about her everyday life. Although some references are drawn from Worsley’s knowledge of Georgian society, she doesn’t hesitate to draw inferences from Austen’s novels and letters. Further, I think she has a better sense than some biographers of when in Austen’s letters she is joking

Worsley points out how important a settled home is in Austen’s fiction. Certainly, from the time of her father’s retirement from Steventon, that is something she and her sister and mother did not have that provoked much anxiety.

It was Tomalin’s suggestion that Austen was unable to write when she was unsettled, but Worsley suggests that Austen was working on novels all along but not doing much to market them. She also pointed out some subversive ideas in Austen’s fiction that I never noticed despite how many times I’ve read the novels. In any case, she does a good job of showing how revolutionary Austen’s fiction was for her time.

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Review 2298: Libertie

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Libertie is an African-American girl growing up in pre-Civil War Brooklyn. Her mother, Mrs. Sampson, practices as a homeopath and has been training Libertie in the use of plants. Her great desire is for Libertie to study medicine and become the first African-American woman doctor.

But Libertie seems to be a person who only knows what she doesn’t want. She doesn’t want to study medicine, but her mother arranges a course of study for her at a college in Ohio for African-American students, without consulting her. She is the only girl in the science department. There she decides to punish her mother for sending her away by neglecting her studies. She spends her time trying to figure out how to fit in with one group or another and finally settles on girls nicknamed the Graces, two women with beautiful singing voices.

The novel is mostly concerned with the relationship between the two women—the mother constantly pushing, disapproving, eaten up with ambition for her daughter but with no regard for what her daughter wants, the daughter seeking approval but rebelling at the same time, with no ambitions for her own life. This relationship becomes even more difficult when Libertie comes home after a year at college, lying about her results, and meets Emmanuel Chase, her mother’s protégé from Haiti.

I was uncomfortable with this book, I think, partly because of its first-person point of view. I don’t like historical fiction that makes its heroines modern, and there is nothing 19th century about Libertie’s narrative, especially when it comes to sex. But even more than that, it didn’t help that neither Libertie nor her mother is a particularly appealing character or that all of Libertie’s life decisions are poor ones. A 21st century young person might fritter away the opportunity that her mother is struggling to provide her, for example, but I can’t imagine a 19th century one, with her knowledge of what her people have been through, would. Libertie behaves more like a spoiled 21st century child than someone who in the 19th century would be considered a young woman.

Finally, Greenidge says this novel was inspired by the first African-American woman doctor in the States, but I kept wondering who it was meant to be. Mrs. Sampson herself is not a qualified doctor, and Libertie purposefully sabotages her opportunity in pre-med.

I read this novel for my James Tait Black project.

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Review 2297: Killingly

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Killingly is loosely based on the true story of a student’s disappearance from Mount Holyoke College in 1847.

Bertha Mallish has vanished, but the readers realize that her best friend Agnes Sullivan seems to know something about it. The river has been dragged, but no trace of Bertha can be found.

Bertha and Agnes are the campus misfits. They are hard workers who don’t socialize and are from poor families. However, the last few months they have become very close.

Dr. Hammond, who had been courting Bertha, has arrived at the college with Reverend Mallish, Bertha’s elderly grandfather, and Florence, her much older sister. Florence and Agnes don’t like Dr. Hammond, who quickly develops an obsession about the case, hires a private detective, and behaves as though he’s in charge of the investigation. He becomes suspicious of Agnes.

Beutner is very skillful in how she slowly unfolds the story and reveals what happened to Bertha. She draws you in to a story that is sometimes affecting, sometimes suspenseful. The novel is involving, and I look forward to reading more by Beutner.

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Review 2295: Frederica

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I didn’t set out to reread Frederica, but the Folio Society just brought out a couple of beautiful editions of some of Heyer’s books, so I had to buy them. My original review is here, but I thought I’d talk about some things that struck me this time around.

Heyer has a great sense of humor, and I was tickled by the situation that brings about the climax of the book. Frederica has spent a good deal of ill-afforded money and enlisted Lord Alverstoke’s help with the aim of making a good match for her beautiful but dim-witted sister, Charis. Unfortunately, Charis has fallen in love with Endymion Dauntry, Alverstoke’s handsome but stupid heir. Frederica is skeptical of Charis’s affections because she has fallen in love many times before. Endymion has convinced himself that Alverstoke would prevent the match by having him sent on a mission. Not only does Alverstoke have no power to do so, but he doesn’t really care who Endymion marries. He thinks Endymion isn’t serious because he hasn’t consulted him about getting married.

The incident with the dog in the park

Endymion is friends with Harry, Charis’s and Frederica’s brother, and the two have been confiding their star-crossed misfortunes to him. Frederica makes him angry for some trivial reason, and he suddenly realizes he is Charis’s guardian. So, the three of them stage a totally unnecessary runaway marriage.

Felix and Jessamy, Frederica’s young brothers, are especially delightful characters. Heyer is an amusing writer and a master of silly situations such as the one that Charis and Endymion create for themselves.

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