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osprey_archerReading aged books on my Kindle again! Because they are freeeee, which is clearly the perfect price, and also often have moments of bizarre crackiness.
First: The Making of a Marchioness, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which is not one of her stronger books, withal.
I have noticed this pattern in her books that are not The Secret Garden or A Little Princess: they start out strong (the first third of The Making of a Marchioness, before Emily Fox-Seton becomes a marchioness, is quite fine) and then lose their shape. After Emily ascends to the marquisate, there’s a sort of half-hearted assassination attempt that never becomes very interesting, and then Emily goes into hiding and nothing happens, really.
Also Emily is compared to a six-year-old far more often than any romantic heroine ought to be. Perhaps particularly one of thirty-four (Emily’s age and position in life are one of the few things to recommend the book, as they make her an unusual romantic heroine - but L. M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle does that much better), but really, I think generally romantic heroines should not be referred to incessantly as child-like.
Also, there is an evil ayah who is devoted to her charge (grown-up now, but still her charge) to the point of assassination. I kept hoping that this might get complicated a bit, but no, not so much.
Switching to the other kind of Indians! I finally finished Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, which follows the adventures of the unfortunate Ramona, a half-Indian girl raised on an hacienda until she falls in love with the Indian Alessandro. The Senora who runs the hacienda is horrified, which forces Ramona and Alessandro to run away together.
They spend the rest of the book building various houses, which keep getting taking away from them by the Americans, until Alessandro (who has gone just a bit mad as a result of all this ill treatment) accidentally steals a horse and gets shot in a face by an American rancher.
At which point! At which point! With the terrible timing most common to tragic novels, Ramona’s foster brother Felipe finally finds them. He has been trying to find them ever since his mother the Senora died, to tell them they can come back to the ranch and live in palatial comfort! Felipe, incidentally, has been in love with Ramona since forever, and after she has had a few months to recover from her husband’s murder he is like “RAMONA LET’S GET MARRIED.”
Ramona is all, “I think of you as a brother. And also I’m still kind of traumatized by seeing my husband shot in the face in front of me. And also, I think my soul might have died with him. But hey, why not?”
Me: “That seemed like three VERY GOOD REASONS why not!”
But whatevs, I guess Jackson wanted to give her readers a sort of happy ending? Felipe and Ramona get married and have dozens of children.
First: The Making of a Marchioness, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which is not one of her stronger books, withal.
I have noticed this pattern in her books that are not The Secret Garden or A Little Princess: they start out strong (the first third of The Making of a Marchioness, before Emily Fox-Seton becomes a marchioness, is quite fine) and then lose their shape. After Emily ascends to the marquisate, there’s a sort of half-hearted assassination attempt that never becomes very interesting, and then Emily goes into hiding and nothing happens, really.
Also Emily is compared to a six-year-old far more often than any romantic heroine ought to be. Perhaps particularly one of thirty-four (Emily’s age and position in life are one of the few things to recommend the book, as they make her an unusual romantic heroine - but L. M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle does that much better), but really, I think generally romantic heroines should not be referred to incessantly as child-like.
Also, there is an evil ayah who is devoted to her charge (grown-up now, but still her charge) to the point of assassination. I kept hoping that this might get complicated a bit, but no, not so much.
Switching to the other kind of Indians! I finally finished Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, which follows the adventures of the unfortunate Ramona, a half-Indian girl raised on an hacienda until she falls in love with the Indian Alessandro. The Senora who runs the hacienda is horrified, which forces Ramona and Alessandro to run away together.
They spend the rest of the book building various houses, which keep getting taking away from them by the Americans, until Alessandro (who has gone just a bit mad as a result of all this ill treatment) accidentally steals a horse and gets shot in a face by an American rancher.
At which point! At which point! With the terrible timing most common to tragic novels, Ramona’s foster brother Felipe finally finds them. He has been trying to find them ever since his mother the Senora died, to tell them they can come back to the ranch and live in palatial comfort! Felipe, incidentally, has been in love with Ramona since forever, and after she has had a few months to recover from her husband’s murder he is like “RAMONA LET’S GET MARRIED.”
Ramona is all, “I think of you as a brother. And also I’m still kind of traumatized by seeing my husband shot in the face in front of me. And also, I think my soul might have died with him. But hey, why not?”
Me: “That seemed like three VERY GOOD REASONS why not!”
But whatevs, I guess Jackson wanted to give her readers a sort of happy ending? Felipe and Ramona get married and have dozens of children.
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Date: 2013-04-29 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-29 05:11 pm (UTC)Burnett's heroines seem to be very hardy types. No matter if they end up living in a garret with rats, they always come through in the end.