Book Review: Georgina's Service Stars
Oct. 14th, 2014 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI didn't actually write, in my project about turn-of-the-twentieth century girls' fiction, that I liked reading these books in part because they are sometimes very, very gay, but sometimes they really really really are. My current case in point is Annie Fellowes Johnston’s Georgina’s Service Stories, which is filled with the glory, GLORY in Georgina’s giant ridiculous crush on Esther.
Naturally it ends badly, because Johnston is of the opinion that one should fall in love slowly and deliberately, after due consideration of the other party’s character, and preferably to a childhood friend. But before that we get oceans of Georgina’s crush and afterward there is lots of WALLOWING IN ANGST, and it is basically like crack for me, CRACK.
When Georgina first meets Esther, she rhapsodizes that the other girl is “a blonde with the most exquisite hair, the color of amber of honey, with little gold crinkles in it. And her eyes - well, they make you think of clear blue sapphires. I loved her from the moment Judith introduced us. Loved her smile, the way it lights up her face, and her voice, soft and slow...”
Georgina is inspired. Why not write a poem for this seraph of beauty? "At that, a whole list of lovely words went slipping through my mind like beads along a string: lily... pearl... snow-crystal... amber... blue-of-deep-waters... blue-of-sapphire-skies... heart of gold. She makes me think of such fair and shining things."
Naturally, Georgina nicknames this fair and shining girl "Star." “She is so wonderful that it is a privilege just to be in the same town with her,” Georgina sighs, and she tries “to live each hour in a way that is good for my character, so as to make myself as worthy as possible of her friendship. For instance, I dust the hind legs of the piano and the backs of the picture frames as conscientiously as the parts that show.”
Even when storm clouds begin to gather, Georgina holds fast to her love. "It is simply that love gives me a clearer vision than the others have - the power to see the halo of charm which encircles her," Georgina reflects, clinging desperately to her vision of Esther's high and shining soul.
But it all comes to nought! Esther is already engaged to someone else and is flirting with all the boys in town just to amuse herself by breaking their hearts. "I wished I could have died before I found out that she wasn't all I believed her to be," Georgina sobs - and I mean really sobs; she goes home, falls down on a couch, can't cry for a while because her heart is so absolutely wrung, but then weeps till she gets a sick headache.
And then World War I happens and Georgina learns important lessons about Patriotism etc. etc., and it's much less breathlessly gushing - even the part where she falls in love with her childhood BFF Richard is less gushing than her rhapsodies about Esther. (Incidentally, Georgina first noticed that her childhood BFF had grown into a hunk when Esther mentioned it. I am just saying.) So I kind of lost interest after Esther broke Georgina's heart, but the first third of the book is GLORIOUS.
Naturally it ends badly, because Johnston is of the opinion that one should fall in love slowly and deliberately, after due consideration of the other party’s character, and preferably to a childhood friend. But before that we get oceans of Georgina’s crush and afterward there is lots of WALLOWING IN ANGST, and it is basically like crack for me, CRACK.
When Georgina first meets Esther, she rhapsodizes that the other girl is “a blonde with the most exquisite hair, the color of amber of honey, with little gold crinkles in it. And her eyes - well, they make you think of clear blue sapphires. I loved her from the moment Judith introduced us. Loved her smile, the way it lights up her face, and her voice, soft and slow...”
Georgina is inspired. Why not write a poem for this seraph of beauty? "At that, a whole list of lovely words went slipping through my mind like beads along a string: lily... pearl... snow-crystal... amber... blue-of-deep-waters... blue-of-sapphire-skies... heart of gold. She makes me think of such fair and shining things."
Naturally, Georgina nicknames this fair and shining girl "Star." “She is so wonderful that it is a privilege just to be in the same town with her,” Georgina sighs, and she tries “to live each hour in a way that is good for my character, so as to make myself as worthy as possible of her friendship. For instance, I dust the hind legs of the piano and the backs of the picture frames as conscientiously as the parts that show.”
Even when storm clouds begin to gather, Georgina holds fast to her love. "It is simply that love gives me a clearer vision than the others have - the power to see the halo of charm which encircles her," Georgina reflects, clinging desperately to her vision of Esther's high and shining soul.
But it all comes to nought! Esther is already engaged to someone else and is flirting with all the boys in town just to amuse herself by breaking their hearts. "I wished I could have died before I found out that she wasn't all I believed her to be," Georgina sobs - and I mean really sobs; she goes home, falls down on a couch, can't cry for a while because her heart is so absolutely wrung, but then weeps till she gets a sick headache.
And then World War I happens and Georgina learns important lessons about Patriotism etc. etc., and it's much less breathlessly gushing - even the part where she falls in love with her childhood BFF Richard is less gushing than her rhapsodies about Esther. (Incidentally, Georgina first noticed that her childhood BFF had grown into a hunk when Esther mentioned it. I am just saying.) So I kind of lost interest after Esther broke Georgina's heart, but the first third of the book is GLORIOUS.
