Wednesday Reading Meme: Paris Edition

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

As usual when I travel, I set out to Paris with the stern intention of reading lots and lots during the inevitable travel downtime. And I did get some reading done! In particular, I read three Biggles books on the airplane rides (surely the best time to read a Biggles book): Biggles Buries a Hatchet, Biggles Takes a Hand, and Biggles Looks Back, three of the cornerstones of the good ship Biggles/von Stalhein and just generally a great time.

I particularly enjoyed Biggles Looks Back, which offers Biggles and von Stalhein working together (!) and also a gigantic gothic castle (!!!) and ALSO Biggles going “Well look, when I discovered that my first girlfriend was really a German spy whose machinations almost got my aerodrome blown up, it shattered my heart in a million pieces, but after all she was just doing her job! Can’t hold it against her! I did the same thing to von Stalhein the first time we met!” which is truly the most Biggles attitude toward anything. Obviously when your former enemy is being held in durance vile in a Siberian prison camp and/or gothic castle there is nothing for it but to risk life and limb rescuing them.

Also, littlerhymes and I did an in-person buddy read! Unfortunately the book we chose was Maylis de Kerangal’s Painting Time (translated by Jessica Moore), which is a perfectly fine book, but not, perhaps, well-adapted to our method of buddy reading, as we kept gunning for more elaboration on the character dynamics (in particular the Kate/Paula dynamics, without any real hope that the book was going to go there) and the book was instead resolutely focused on the relationship between creators and their art, and art as a link between humans across time.

However, mostly I spent the trip rereading D. K. Broster’s The Wounded Name, because it is set mostly in France, so it’s thematic, right?? Also this book is at least 50% hurt-comfort by weight, literally a third of it is simply Laurent adoringly nursing Aymar back to health when Aymar is BROKEN in both BODY and SPIRIT, and sometimes this is simply the energy that I want in my life.

What I’m Reading Now

D. K. Broster and G. Winifred Taylor’s Chantemerle, an epic romance of the French Revolution. Gilbert is a Liberal in the style of the Marquis de Lafayette (and indeed, Gilbert is a marquis himself). He is engaged to his cousin Lucienne… but, awkwardly, Lucienne is involved in a passionately repressed love affair with yet another cousin, Louis, a dandyish duel-fighting roguishly charming ultra-royalist who has just been thrown in prison as a result of a poorly conceived plot! Gilbert rescues him, only for Louis to get shot in the shoulder and fall into a delirium during which he accidentally reveals the grand passion that he and Lucienne have tried so hard to renounce…

This is not quite Wounded Name level (in particular, I don’t feel the relationship between Gilbert and Louis is particularly slashy), but it is certainly A Lot in an entertaining way.

What I Plan to Read Next

High hopes that I will soon get to William Dean Howells’ Italian Journeys!

Comments

[philomytha]

That is an EXCELLENT collection of books. The Wounded Name truly is the MOST book ever, reading it for the first time was an eyes-popping-out-of-my-head experience at the sheer amount of outright revelling in h/c in a published book, I have never seen anything like it ever. Reading Looks Back was a similar boggling experience as WEJ decided he was going to give Biggles, Marie and Erich an epic romantic adventure together and then went at it full speed ahead, with giant castles and secret passages and disguises and daring rescues galore.

[osprey_archer]

The sheer DENSITY of h/c in The Wounded Name. The fact that she contrives to get her heroes naked together (because they have to take off their sopping wet clothes!) within hours of their first meeting. Aymar TIED TO A TREE and SHOT LIKE SAINT SEBASTIAN. The absolute lack of restraint is glorious.

I realize that Looks Back is not exactly a Ruritanian adventure, but it feels like a Ruritanian adventure, and Johns is simply having a fantastic time with it. Ruins, secret passages, daring landings in dark fields, the crown jewels hidden away in the castle, the whole shebang!

[black_bentley]

The Wounded Name is SO MUCH. Truly batshit h/c levels, and I am here for it.

Biggles Looks Back is just a book that shouldn't exist on so many levels, but we are truly blessed that it does.

[osprey_archer]

D. K. Broster simply threw her all into that book and I stand in awe of the end result.

One wonders if a publisher wanted Johns to write a book that would render Biggles slightly more straight and Johns complied with a menage a trois. "But that wasn't - but - okay, fine," sputters the publisher, aware that he is not going to get anything remotely more straight than this.

[black_bentley]

Makes sense.

"Sorry, Bill, there's simply no possible heterosexual explanation for these books, you're going to need to... THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT."

I do have to respect Broster for just slapping her id on every single page, you can tell she had a ball writing it.

[luzula]

A+ reading choices! I love the fact that The Wounded Name is in my book case, in a signed first edition, there whenever I want it. *gloats* (Well, in actual fact it is currently in a box, but in September it will be on my bookshelf again.)

I haven't read Chantemerle yet, it's one of the few Brosters I have left. But it is also in my bookshelf (or a box, whatever!).

[osprey_archer]

What a fantastic book to have in a signed first edition. And sometimes a book like The Wounded Name is the only thing that will hit the spot.

Chantmerle lacks the density of hurt/comfort, but I believe Gilbert is now going to have to nurse Louis back to health while furiously loathing him for absconding with Lucienne's affections, which may scratch a completely different itch. Will he be torn between his duty of compassion toward the invalid and his own real feelings? Almost certainly! Will his loathing slip sometimes in the face of Louis's complete helplessness? Probably! Excellent. Beautiful.

[troisoiseaux]

Sounds like I will have to finally jump on the bandwagon and read The Wounded Name.

(......which I must confess, I somehow got the impression was a sequel to The Flight of the Heron instead of being a completely different slashy, hurt/comfort-y Broster novel. She would have loved AO3!)

[osprey_archer]

Ahaha yes, I can see how you would get that impression. But no! The Wounded Name is indeed a completely different slashy, hurt-comfort-y Broster novel!