osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2013-12-20 09:50 pm
osprey_archer) wrote2013-12-20 09:50 pm
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More Sutcliff Books
I have been steamrolling through the university library’s Sutcliff books. Every time I search a new library for her books - I think I’m up to seven libraries by now; I’ve moved twice over the course of this quest, but still - I find Sutcliff books that I’d never even heard of. My newest find is Rider on a White Horse, an English Civil War book, but not the English Civil War book that I’m looking for, which is Simon, which no one has. Simon is fast becoming my white whale.
In any case, some reviewlets of the books that I’ve read.
1. The Capricorn Bracelet, which is a bit like the Dolphin Ring cycle all smushed in one book. It’s a series of short stories that span most of Rome’s history in Britain, linked by the Capricorn bracelet that the family passes down through its members. Not only is the concept like the Dolphin Ring writ small, but many of the stories echo incidents and themes in the Dolphin Ring books: the commander winning his troops’ loyalty, the horse raid gone wrong, the steadily encroaching Saxons, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
Therefore if you like the Dolphin Ring stories, you’ll probably enjoy this, but it doesn’t really add anything new.
2. The Hound of Ulster, which is a retelling of the epic (epics?) of Cuchulain. I continue to find the appeal of epics utterly baffling, because the characters always seem so cartoonishly over-the-top (and proud of it, too!), but I daresay for people who like this sort of thing, this is the kind of thing they would like.
3. Bonnie Dundee, which, like many of Sutcliff’s works, is slow to get started. The winner in this regard is still Blood and Sand, which takes approximately two-thirds of the book to really get off the ground (although I’ve heard Sword at Sunset is even worse at this, how is that even possible?).
However, I’m still rather fond of Bonnie Dundee, because its trademarked Sutcliff love polygon is not merely triangular but actually quadrilateral, and it has a pair of female best friends at the center: Lady Jean and her lady-in-waiting Darklis. (Do any of Sutcliff’s other novels have female bestest best friends? I’m not thinking of any at the moment. I guess Lady Aud has her ex-queen of Ireland handmaiden, but that’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.)
Lady Jean marries Captain Claverhouse! But Claverhouse gets called away on their very wedding night to put down a little rebellion! So Darklis spends Lady Jean’s wedding night with her. Like you do.
Our narrator, Hugh Herriot, also adores Captain Claverhouse. In fact, Hugh loves Claverhouse so much that he actually sets aside the opportunity to apprentice to a Dutch painter (!!!) in order to join Claverhouse’s cavalry unit and follow him around Scotland like a faithful hound. Sadly for Hugh, Claverhouse is only vaguely fond of him, in the way of a man who has an awful lot of hounds to be fond of.
But it’s all right! Because Hugh is also in love with Darklis, and he loves her enough that it makes up for any pangs that not being Claverhouse’s bestest of best friends might cause him. Not only do Hugh and Darklis actually snatch quite a number of moments together over the course of the story, but Hugh seems to be legitimately attracted to her: they kiss repeatedly. And he goes into battle wearing her brooch over his heart, and remembers her even when she is not directly in his line of sight!
This last is surprisingly difficult for many Sutcliff heroes. I find it more and more grating as I read more Sutcliff books: I don't understand why she feels compelled to highlight the fact that the hero barely ever thinks of the girl he supposedly loves.
But so anyway: Darklis! It's hard to go wrong with a name like that.
In any case, some reviewlets of the books that I’ve read.
1. The Capricorn Bracelet, which is a bit like the Dolphin Ring cycle all smushed in one book. It’s a series of short stories that span most of Rome’s history in Britain, linked by the Capricorn bracelet that the family passes down through its members. Not only is the concept like the Dolphin Ring writ small, but many of the stories echo incidents and themes in the Dolphin Ring books: the commander winning his troops’ loyalty, the horse raid gone wrong, the steadily encroaching Saxons, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
Therefore if you like the Dolphin Ring stories, you’ll probably enjoy this, but it doesn’t really add anything new.
2. The Hound of Ulster, which is a retelling of the epic (epics?) of Cuchulain. I continue to find the appeal of epics utterly baffling, because the characters always seem so cartoonishly over-the-top (and proud of it, too!), but I daresay for people who like this sort of thing, this is the kind of thing they would like.
3. Bonnie Dundee, which, like many of Sutcliff’s works, is slow to get started. The winner in this regard is still Blood and Sand, which takes approximately two-thirds of the book to really get off the ground (although I’ve heard Sword at Sunset is even worse at this, how is that even possible?).
However, I’m still rather fond of Bonnie Dundee, because its trademarked Sutcliff love polygon is not merely triangular but actually quadrilateral, and it has a pair of female best friends at the center: Lady Jean and her lady-in-waiting Darklis. (Do any of Sutcliff’s other novels have female bestest best friends? I’m not thinking of any at the moment. I guess Lady Aud has her ex-queen of Ireland handmaiden, but that’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.)
Lady Jean marries Captain Claverhouse! But Claverhouse gets called away on their very wedding night to put down a little rebellion! So Darklis spends Lady Jean’s wedding night with her. Like you do.
Our narrator, Hugh Herriot, also adores Captain Claverhouse. In fact, Hugh loves Claverhouse so much that he actually sets aside the opportunity to apprentice to a Dutch painter (!!!) in order to join Claverhouse’s cavalry unit and follow him around Scotland like a faithful hound. Sadly for Hugh, Claverhouse is only vaguely fond of him, in the way of a man who has an awful lot of hounds to be fond of.
But it’s all right! Because Hugh is also in love with Darklis, and he loves her enough that it makes up for any pangs that not being Claverhouse’s bestest of best friends might cause him. Not only do Hugh and Darklis actually snatch quite a number of moments together over the course of the story, but Hugh seems to be legitimately attracted to her: they kiss repeatedly. And he goes into battle wearing her brooch over his heart, and remembers her even when she is not directly in his line of sight!
This last is surprisingly difficult for many Sutcliff heroes. I find it more and more grating as I read more Sutcliff books: I don't understand why she feels compelled to highlight the fact that the hero barely ever thinks of the girl he supposedly loves.
But so anyway: Darklis! It's hard to go wrong with a name like that.
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I am intrigued! Maybe I'll see if I can hunt this one down. I did buy Simon a while back, and I guess liked it enough to justify the $20, but I wouldn't pay more for it. It did have a lovely female friendship, but very very background (like everything else I found interesting about it), and I didn't feel like it was one of her stronger books.
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I wouldn't necessarily pay money for Bonnie Dundee - or at least, not very much money - but if it comes across your path, I think it's worth a read.
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(TBH, I think part of why Frontier Wolf and The Shining Company are my favorites is that there's no love interest in FW to be forgotten, and in TSC Prosper has no love interest and Conn clearly doesn't ever forget Luned--the secondary romances are often more convincing. It's when the character with the romance is the male protagonist Sutcliff is identifying with that things tend to get hinky.)
Grump, no Bonnie Dundee in local libraries, not sure I'd be able to ILL with a uni library card. I wouldn't say I'm aiming for a complete Sutcliff collection, but it does look like there are some cheap copies on AbeBooks (I still need to buy Capricorn Bracelet and Witch's Brat...)
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It wouldn't surprise me at all if someone used that excuse on her, and repeating it - and having so many male main characters, in a sort of bid to get around being doomed to second best - was her response.
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I've been finally reading the short stories that
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