Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

A couple more Rumer Goddens. The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle is delightful retelling of a folktale with enchanting illustrations by Mairi Hedderwick, including a cross-section of the “vinegar bottle,” that is to say, the cylindrical two-story cottage, one room on top of the other with a thatched round roof on top. I love cross-sections (one of my favorite ever Brambly Hedge illustrations is the cross-section of a tree trunk that is a mouse palace) and this one is infinitely appealing in the small perfect snugness of the house.

Also Mouse House, illustrated by Adrienne Adams, in which a little girl is given a little house with a couple of boring little mouse dolls… only eventually the mouse house ends up in the cellar, where a real mouse family moves in, and Mary sometimes goes to the cellar to watch them frolic. Cute! Will probably forget this book in its entirety.

I also read Doris Gates’ A Filly for Melinda, the sequel to A Morgan for Melinda, which suffers as sequels often do from a drop-off in quality from the first book… However, the drop-off is not severe here. I still enjoyed Melinda’s voice, and it was nice to revisit her and her family and her horses (now supplemented by Merry Jo’s baby filly, Little Missy); it just felt inessential.

What I’m Reading Now

In Sir Isumbras at the Ford, the Marquis de Flavigny is on the verge of death! Except wait! An English naval lieutenant has just found him on the shore, so perhaps he will yet be saved, and the Chevalier de Vireville will be the one to die? Has Broster gotten me again with her trademark move of “heavily foreshadowing one character’s death, only to kill another character entirely?” We shall see!

Certainly de Vireville is in grave danger at the moment. He has just broken his own sword rather than surrender it to the Republican forces, and now awaits surrender and/or capture. Rough when your attempt to invade your home country and take it back in the name of the Royal family is scuppered by poor leadership, not least the Royal family’s refusal to send an actual Royal to fight with the royalist forces.

Meanwhile, in E. B. White’s One Man’s Meat, America has entered World War II. White seems positively relieved by this development, which I understand: it’s much easier to deal with an actual disaster than to live indefinitely in its impending shadow.

What I Plan to Read Next

I have Daphne DuMaurier’s The Flight of the Falcon, about which I know nothing except that Daphne DuMaurier wrote it. In fact I’ve been eyeing DuMaurier’s extended oeuvre, as you might say, by which I mean the books beyond Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn. Any recs or anti-recs?

Comments

[cyphomandra]

I have read du Maurier’s Rule Britannia, in which the US takes over running the UK after the UK economy collapses when they leave the EU, and although it now might be more on point than when I read it :D it is rather odd - I think it’s intended as a satire but I’m not sure that’s her best genre.

[osprey_archer]

Oh interesting! I wouldn't have guessed that she wrote satires, or at least attempted it in this one instance.

[anna_wing]

Frenchman's Creek was quite fun. The film with Joan Fontaine and the terrifically dashing Arturo de Cordova was pretty good too.

[osprey_archer]

Oh yes, I'll have to consider whether I'll be watching the movies too! I've already seen Rebecca and The Birds (Rebecca was so long ago that I'd be up for a rewatch, though), and there's a recent My Cousin Rachel that I've been meaning to see but haven't got around to. I'll have to look into what else is available.

[regshoe]

Has Broster gotten me again with her trademark move of “heavily foreshadowing one character’s death, only to kill another character entirely?” We shall see!

:D

Broster's sympathy for the Royalists combined with being pretty heavily critical (evidently with good reason) of the actual Royals in some of her French books is interesting, especially in the context of her similar feelings about the Jacobites.

I remember really liking du Maurier's The House on the Strand when I read it years ago, though not sure how well it would hold up.

[osprey_archer]

Broster LOVES a doomed cause, and perhaps incompetent leaders are simply unavoidable when writing a doomed cause tale, as they are so often what Dooms the Cause? I do feel a certain amount of "Can't believe you're dying for these idiots" about her characters sometimes, although to be fair the French aristocrats seem to be dying more for the dream of going back to their homeland than for the Bourbons specifically.

I've heard good things about The House on the Strand!

[anna_wing]

Broster heroes' causes pretty much epitomise Wrong But Wromantic...