1990, 1991 Vintage International edition
A. S. Byatt
Possession: A Romance
Bought newish for $12.00
Worn paperback
B+
Like Fowle's The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), this contrasts moderns with Victorians, but the approach and results are different. Roland and Maud, two literary scholars, each devoted to a Victorian poet, in 1986 and '87 trace the connection-- intellectual and romantic-- between their poets, themselves connecting intellectually and then romantically. Although this is definitely a novel ("romance" in Hawthorne's sense), I'm using the "epistolary," "literary criticism," and "poetry" tags because Byatt creates not just poems but all sorts of texts (and subtexts) that are convincingly real. (As you know, I generally don't like poetry but I do like it when Christabel LaMotte writes like Emily Dickinson.) The book is a celebration of not just writing but reading, and reading into, which means it's often joyful but can get bogged down. At times, especially early on, I was tempted to give this an A-, but while it's an impressive and frequently fun book, it just doesn't quite make it to the top tier. (By now, I'm pretty much convinced I'll never give out an A, certainly no A+.)
For the most part, Byatt presents her Victorians just through their writing, although there are times when she shows them directly. However, she doesn't get as close as Fowle did. When we see characters riding the train, Byatt isn't curled up into a corner of the compartment, as he was. Like many of her characters, she's more aloof. The book is about both passion (possession in many senses, including spiritual) and its avoidance, and times when celibacy is the more "romantic" choice. (Even whether or not to read something is a very important choice, more important than sexual choices sometimes.) One reason I loathed the 2002 movie is that Roland, who appeals to Maud partly because he's not "forceful," was changed into a brash American. It's better to have an ice queen's melting be more paradoxical. Also, in the book it's much clearer why Maud seems like an ice queen, because we see the nature of her recent involvements with a man and a woman, both of whom overwhelmed her.
When I first read the book, the ending surprised me but it fit. I'm generally writing these reviews as if you don't mind spoilers, but I really do need to say don't read further if you haven't read the book but plan to.
SPOILERS AND SPECULATION....
LaMotte and Randolph Henry Ash go away together for a week in Yorkshire, in early to mid-June 1859. As near as we can tell, it's the only time they have sex. (He's married, she has a live-in girlfriend.) Cleaning up after their first time (possibly her first time with a man), he finds blood on his thighs. He doesn't talk to her about it. Has he deflowered her? Does she have her period? Some other reason? We never find out.
She has a baby sometime between mid-April and early May. The baby, who's raised by LaMotte's sister, is named Maia, implying the later month. But wait a minute, even mid-April is at least ten months after she had sex with RHA. The big reveal at the end of the novel is that Maud is the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of both poets. But is she? What if LaMotte had an affair with another man? (My money's on Crabb, the only other male friend she has.) It's like there's a whole other subtext to the book, one that Byatt isn't aware of, or sneakily pretends isn't there!
Showing posts with label epistolary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label epistolary. Show all posts
Monday, June 17, 2013
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
A Woman of Independent Means
1978, 1979 Avon edition
Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
A Woman of Independent Means
Original price $2.50, purchase price unknown
Very worn paperback
C+
Hailey tells the story of the title character, Bess Steed Garner, through selected letters, all written by Bess, covering from childhood in 1899 to near death in 1968. Since we don't see the reactions to her letters (unlike with Lazlo Toth), it's hard to tell if other people find her as controlling and sometimes dishonest as she seems to the reader. For instance, it's clear that neither of her husbands makes her happy, yet she acts like her first husband was the love of her life, despite his neglect. Is she lying to herself as well as her friends and family, or is that just how things seem to her after losing him? Her estrangement from her grown daughter is glossed over, partly because Hailey rushes through the last 30 or 35 years of Bess's life.
This edition has many glowing reviews, but I didn't find it all that touching. It moves along and is sometimes mildly funny, but I didn't feel like I knew or liked Bess particularly well. The best aspects of the book, and Bess, are probably her courage, optimism, and willingness to adapt to changing times.
This is not only the 100th C+ for this blog, but this is the 100th book of mine for the 1970s, and obviously I'm far from done with the decade. It looks like I've read more books from 1972, sixteen, than any other year.
Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
A Woman of Independent Means
Original price $2.50, purchase price unknown
Very worn paperback
C+
Hailey tells the story of the title character, Bess Steed Garner, through selected letters, all written by Bess, covering from childhood in 1899 to near death in 1968. Since we don't see the reactions to her letters (unlike with Lazlo Toth), it's hard to tell if other people find her as controlling and sometimes dishonest as she seems to the reader. For instance, it's clear that neither of her husbands makes her happy, yet she acts like her first husband was the love of her life, despite his neglect. Is she lying to herself as well as her friends and family, or is that just how things seem to her after losing him? Her estrangement from her grown daughter is glossed over, partly because Hailey rushes through the last 30 or 35 years of Bess's life.
This edition has many glowing reviews, but I didn't find it all that touching. It moves along and is sometimes mildly funny, but I didn't feel like I knew or liked Bess particularly well. The best aspects of the book, and Bess, are probably her courage, optimism, and willingness to adapt to changing times.
This is not only the 100th C+ for this blog, but this is the 100th book of mine for the 1970s, and obviously I'm far from done with the decade. It looks like I've read more books from 1972, sixteen, than any other year.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Alexander Botts
1977, possibly first edition, from the Curtis Publishing Company
William Hazlett Upson
Alexander Botts
Original and purchase price unknown
Worn hardcover, with my writing of some of the dates on Table of Contents
C+
These short stories were originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, over the course of almost half a century. Upson's style, deliberately stilted and understated to reflect Botts's personality, doesn't really change. In fact, the stories are pretty formulaic. Botts tries to sell someone a tractor or maybe a dozen, mishaps and misunderstandings ensue, he sometimes ends up in the hospital or jail, but everything works out OK, while his boss Henderson frets and scolds, sometimes by telegram. And in several of the stories, businessmen are named George, perhaps in tribute to Babbitt, conscious or not. I find this collection pleasant but not too memorable, although this time it was amusing to see a corporation called "Metallica." (The heavy metal band formed in '81, probably not inspired by Upson.)
There are some generally topical references, from World War I to "the younger generation," and it's funny to see how Communists are presented in the 1930s and then the 1950s. Botts and his wife "Gadget" age over the years, but he doesn't really act like an 82-year-old in the story set in '74, even though he reminisces about a vacation with an uncle in 1904.
In 1936, Warner Bros released a movie, called Earthworm Tractors after the company Botts works for. I've never seen it, but it stars Joe E. Brown as Botts.
William Hazlett Upson
Alexander Botts
Original and purchase price unknown
Worn hardcover, with my writing of some of the dates on Table of Contents
C+
These short stories were originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, over the course of almost half a century. Upson's style, deliberately stilted and understated to reflect Botts's personality, doesn't really change. In fact, the stories are pretty formulaic. Botts tries to sell someone a tractor or maybe a dozen, mishaps and misunderstandings ensue, he sometimes ends up in the hospital or jail, but everything works out OK, while his boss Henderson frets and scolds, sometimes by telegram. And in several of the stories, businessmen are named George, perhaps in tribute to Babbitt, conscious or not. I find this collection pleasant but not too memorable, although this time it was amusing to see a corporation called "Metallica." (The heavy metal band formed in '81, probably not inspired by Upson.)
There are some generally topical references, from World War I to "the younger generation," and it's funny to see how Communists are presented in the 1930s and then the 1950s. Botts and his wife "Gadget" age over the years, but he doesn't really act like an 82-year-old in the story set in '74, even though he reminisces about a vacation with an uncle in 1904.
In 1936, Warner Bros released a movie, called Earthworm Tractors after the company Botts works for. I've never seen it, but it stars Joe E. Brown as Botts.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Lady Susan
1793-4
Jane Austen
Lady Susan
B
A series of letters to and about the title character, a charming, immoral society woman. This is as humourous as Love & Freindship but not as exaggerated. Eighteen-year-old Austen makes her anti-heroine and the other characters more plausible. Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway's Lady Vernon and Her Daughter (2009) is a poor attempt to put the novel into straight prose. By trying to make Lady Susan sympathetic, the mother-daughter authors are compelled to throw out much of the earlier material and in fact their lady is very forgettable. Better stick with the vivid original.
Jane Austen
Lady Susan
B
A series of letters to and about the title character, a charming, immoral society woman. This is as humourous as Love & Freindship but not as exaggerated. Eighteen-year-old Austen makes her anti-heroine and the other characters more plausible. Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway's Lady Vernon and Her Daughter (2009) is a poor attempt to put the novel into straight prose. By trying to make Lady Susan sympathetic, the mother-daughter authors are compelled to throw out much of the earlier material and in fact their lady is very forgettable. Better stick with the vivid original.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Scraps
1793
Jane Austen
Scraps, containing The Female Philosopher; The First Act of a Comedy; A Letter from a Young Lady, Whose Feelings Being Too Strong for Her Judgement Led Her into the Commission of Errors, Which Her Heart Disapproved; A Tour Through Wales; and A Tale
C+
Lesser in quality and length, this juvenilia from the year Austen turned 18 have their moments, like the tale of a "furnished cottage," but there's not much notable here. The main exception is the first work, which contains a proto-Mary-Bennet.
Jane Austen
Scraps, containing The Female Philosopher; The First Act of a Comedy; A Letter from a Young Lady, Whose Feelings Being Too Strong for Her Judgement Led Her into the Commission of Errors, Which Her Heart Disapproved; A Tour Through Wales; and A Tale
C+
Lesser in quality and length, this juvenilia from the year Austen turned 18 have their moments, like the tale of a "furnished cottage," but there's not much notable here. The main exception is the first work, which contains a proto-Mary-Bennet.
The Three Sisters
1792
Jane Austen
The Three Sisters
B-
Despite the Chekhovian title, this is Austen finding her ultimate subject matter, a family of sisters with a mother eager to marry off one of them, it doesn't matter which, to an unappetising suitor. Most of the letters are written by Lizzy-Bennet-like Georgiana. The greatest flaw of the story is that it is a fragment, and unlike the earlier fragments it has the potential to grow into a very good story. (Sir William Montague is "unfinished," but it's a pretty one-note tale.)
Jane Austen
The Three Sisters
B-
Despite the Chekhovian title, this is Austen finding her ultimate subject matter, a family of sisters with a mother eager to marry off one of them, it doesn't matter which, to an unappetising suitor. Most of the letters are written by Lizzy-Bennet-like Georgiana. The greatest flaw of the story is that it is a fragment, and unlike the earlier fragments it has the potential to grow into a very good story. (Sir William Montague is "unfinished," but it's a pretty one-note tale.)
Lesley Castle
1792
Jane Austen
Lesley Castle
B
Five female correspondents, each with a form of self-centredness, send letters to each other, discussing love, family, and food. The fun here is in the ways that the blind spots play off each other, like the stepmother who thinks her two new stepdaughters are Scotch giants, while they think she's a plain little thing. My favorite character is Charlotte Lutterell, who has the unsentimental outlook of Pride & Prejudice's Charlotte Lucas, but would rather see her sister married off than herself. Also, the subplot of the brother's unhappy marriage and happy divorce is young Jane at her most outrageous.
Jane Austen
Lesley Castle
B
Five female correspondents, each with a form of self-centredness, send letters to each other, discussing love, family, and food. The fun here is in the ways that the blind spots play off each other, like the stepmother who thinks her two new stepdaughters are Scotch giants, while they think she's a plain little thing. My favorite character is Charlotte Lutterell, who has the unsentimental outlook of Pride & Prejudice's Charlotte Lucas, but would rather see her sister married off than herself. Also, the subplot of the brother's unhappy marriage and happy divorce is young Jane at her most outrageous.
A Collection of Letters
1791
Jane Austen
A Collection of Letters
B-
Five unrelated letters, most of them in the exaggerated style of the other juvenilia, but with one mostly serious letter that influenced Pride & Prejudice, "Letter the Third: From a Young Lady in Distress'd Circumstances to Her Friend." My favorite of the other four is the first, "From a Mother to Her Friend," where the mother's daughters tremulously make their debut in the world, by having tea with the neighbours.
Jane Austen
A Collection of Letters
B-
Five unrelated letters, most of them in the exaggerated style of the other juvenilia, but with one mostly serious letter that influenced Pride & Prejudice, "Letter the Third: From a Young Lady in Distress'd Circumstances to Her Friend." My favorite of the other four is the first, "From a Mother to Her Friend," where the mother's daughters tremulously make their debut in the world, by having tea with the neighbours.
Love and Freindship
1790
Jane Austen
Love and Freindship [sic]
B
At 33 pages in this edition, this is double the length of Austen's previously longest work, Jack and Alice, and is probably the best known of her juvenilia. Years before she started on Sense & Sensibility, she offers a sentimental but amoral heroine who tells the story of her life from just before marriage to just after widowhood. This has the famous advice, "Run mad as often as you chuse [sic]; but do not faint." Also, it parodies the father/daughter reunion scene in Evelina, here with a grandfather meeting up with four grandchildren.
Jane Austen
Love and Freindship [sic]
B
At 33 pages in this edition, this is double the length of Austen's previously longest work, Jack and Alice, and is probably the best known of her juvenilia. Years before she started on Sense & Sensibility, she offers a sentimental but amoral heroine who tells the story of her life from just before marriage to just after widowhood. This has the famous advice, "Run mad as often as you chuse [sic]; but do not faint." Also, it parodies the father/daughter reunion scene in Evelina, here with a grandfather meeting up with four grandchildren.
Austen's earliest works
1787-1790, Oxford Illustrated edition of Jane Austen: Minor Works 1967?
Jane Austen
Juvenilia thought to be written between those dates, includes Frederic & Elfrida, Jack & Alice, Edgar & Emma, Henry and Eliza, Mr. Harley, Sir William Montague, Mr. Clifford, The Beautifull [sic] Cassandra, Amelia Webster, The Visit, and The Mystery
Original and purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good shape except for frayed jacket
These works collectively a B-
Even in early adolescence, Jane was witty and talented, although her spelling, punctuation, and capitalisation could've been better. Also, there's deliberately not much plot, character, or other substance here. Highlights of each story are listed below.
Frederic & Elfrida: The way groups of people deliver speeches simultaneously.
Jack & Alice: Probably my favorite of the group, with the lines "Charles Adams was...of so dazzling a Beauty that none but Eagles could look him in the Face" and "...[T]he whole [masquerade] party not excepting Virtue were carried home, Dead Drunk" being best. I also like how Lady Williams (AKA Virtue) is calmly infuriating.
Edgar & Emma: The Willmots seem to have over 20 children.
Henry and Eliza: The implausible trope of the missing baby that turns up years later and is easily recognised, nicely parodied.
Mr. Harley: Very short--three paragraphs!--but with conflict and resolution.
Sir William Montague: A man with wandering eyes and feet, who rejects one fiancee because she chooses 1 September as their wedding day, and that's the start of the hunting season.
Mr. Clifford: When Mr. Clifford gets to an inn, he orders "a whole Egg to be boiled for him & his servants."
The Beautifull Cassandra: Dedicated to her sister Cassandra, this is twelve extremely short chapters about a young lady who goes into town, creates havoc, and then returns to her mother, whispering to herself, "This is a day well spent."
Amelia Webster: Perhaps the world's shortest epistolary novel, seven letters about the romances of the Hervey family.
The Visit: Lord Fitzgerald's excuses to his guests (all blaming his late grandmother) and Lady Hampton's curtain line, "And may you all be Happy," provide the most fun here.
The Mystery: Every conversation drops vague clues.
Jane Austen
Juvenilia thought to be written between those dates, includes Frederic & Elfrida, Jack & Alice, Edgar & Emma, Henry and Eliza, Mr. Harley, Sir William Montague, Mr. Clifford, The Beautifull [sic] Cassandra, Amelia Webster, The Visit, and The Mystery
Original and purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good shape except for frayed jacket
These works collectively a B-
Even in early adolescence, Jane was witty and talented, although her spelling, punctuation, and capitalisation could've been better. Also, there's deliberately not much plot, character, or other substance here. Highlights of each story are listed below.
Frederic & Elfrida: The way groups of people deliver speeches simultaneously.
Jack & Alice: Probably my favorite of the group, with the lines "Charles Adams was...of so dazzling a Beauty that none but Eagles could look him in the Face" and "...[T]he whole [masquerade] party not excepting Virtue were carried home, Dead Drunk" being best. I also like how Lady Williams (AKA Virtue) is calmly infuriating.
Edgar & Emma: The Willmots seem to have over 20 children.
Henry and Eliza: The implausible trope of the missing baby that turns up years later and is easily recognised, nicely parodied.
Mr. Harley: Very short--three paragraphs!--but with conflict and resolution.
Sir William Montague: A man with wandering eyes and feet, who rejects one fiancee because she chooses 1 September as their wedding day, and that's the start of the hunting season.
Mr. Clifford: When Mr. Clifford gets to an inn, he orders "a whole Egg to be boiled for him & his servants."
The Beautifull Cassandra: Dedicated to her sister Cassandra, this is twelve extremely short chapters about a young lady who goes into town, creates havoc, and then returns to her mother, whispering to herself, "This is a day well spent."
Amelia Webster: Perhaps the world's shortest epistolary novel, seven letters about the romances of the Hervey family.
The Visit: Lord Fitzgerald's excuses to his guests (all blaming his late grandmother) and Lady Hampton's curtain line, "And may you all be Happy," provide the most fun here.
The Mystery: Every conversation drops vague clues.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Evelina
1778, Signet Classic edition 1992
Fanny Burney
Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World
Original price $6.95, bought used for unknown
Paperback in pretty bad condition
B
Far more genteel than Humphry Clinker, this novel was one of Jane Austen's major influences. Austen wrote both parodies and homages of such Burneyan characters as stiff, aristocratic love interests; naive, sentimental young ladies; and crude, embarrassing relatives. Even without the Austen connection, this story told through letters from and about Evelina "Anville" (the pseudonymous last name being almost an anagram of the first) is a fun, quick read (despite being 400+ pages). That's why the condition is so poor for a (relatively new for me) edition: I've reread it every two or three years since I bought it.
Fanny Burney
Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World
Original price $6.95, bought used for unknown
Paperback in pretty bad condition
B
Far more genteel than Humphry Clinker, this novel was one of Jane Austen's major influences. Austen wrote both parodies and homages of such Burneyan characters as stiff, aristocratic love interests; naive, sentimental young ladies; and crude, embarrassing relatives. Even without the Austen connection, this story told through letters from and about Evelina "Anville" (the pseudonymous last name being almost an anagram of the first) is a fun, quick read (despite being 400+ pages). That's why the condition is so poor for a (relatively new for me) edition: I've reread it every two or three years since I bought it.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Humphry Clinker
1771, Signet Classic edition 1960
Tobias Smollett
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Original and purchase price unknown
Cover just fell off but otherwise not bad condition for its age
B-
Mr. Clinker is not one of the five letter writers in this novel, and indeed doesn't show up till about a quarter of the way in. He's revealed to be the bastard son of one of the main characters, but it's much less of a revelation than Tom Jones's parentage. Overall, plot and even characterisation are not the strengths of this story. I most enjoy the whole travelogue aspect: descriptions of Bath, London, Edinburgh, etc. This is roughly halfway between the times of Henry Fielding and Jane Austen, so it's an interesting stop on the journey. How can I not be amused by the description of a strange sport the Scots enjoy--golf?! Or how about the part where the traveling party is hosted by that charming Scotsman, Mr. Smollett? This is definitely a minor contribution to literature, but it's a pleasant one.
Tobias Smollett
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Original and purchase price unknown
Cover just fell off but otherwise not bad condition for its age
B-
Mr. Clinker is not one of the five letter writers in this novel, and indeed doesn't show up till about a quarter of the way in. He's revealed to be the bastard son of one of the main characters, but it's much less of a revelation than Tom Jones's parentage. Overall, plot and even characterisation are not the strengths of this story. I most enjoy the whole travelogue aspect: descriptions of Bath, London, Edinburgh, etc. This is roughly halfway between the times of Henry Fielding and Jane Austen, so it's an interesting stop on the journey. How can I not be amused by the description of a strange sport the Scots enjoy--golf?! Or how about the part where the traveling party is hosted by that charming Scotsman, Mr. Smollett? This is definitely a minor contribution to literature, but it's a pleasant one.
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