Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel blew my tiny mind, which seems to be the inevitable result of reading any Daphne du Maurier book, although admittedly the only other book in my sample set is Rebecca.

My Cousin Rachel is in some ways quite like Rebecca: it centers on the woman in the title, who is beautiful and mysterious and threatening in a vague way that might just be a result of the narrator’s paranoid obsession with her - or might be very real.

But this time the woman is alive, and the narrator is a man - and actually gets a name! He’s Philip Ashley, a young man who was raised by his reclusive and misogynistic cousin Ambrose, and therefore knows very, very little about women. He is shocked Ambrose - far away in Italy for his health - marries their distant cousin, Rachel. He is even more appalled when Rachel arrives at the estate after Ambrose’s death - especially given that he has reason to believe that Rachel may have engineered that death...

I don’t want to spoil the book so I won’t go into more detail, but I highly, highly recommend it if you liked Rebecca - or simply gothic novels (of the non-supernatural variety: no giant helmets falling out of the sky here).

What I’m Reading Now

I have begun The Three Musketeers! Which I plan to post about on Thursdays, like I did with The Count of Monte Cristo, so it doesn’t take over the whole Wednesday Reading Meme every week.

A quick sneak preview: I shouldn’t be surprised that this book is all about loyalty kink, but THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT LOYALTY KINK. Also Athos is my favorite so far because he is INJURED and STOIC and then he gets injured AGAIN and at one point he faints.

In other reading news, Julie attempted to lend me Abarat. “I really loved the first two books,” she mused. “I never did read the third one…”

At which a maniacal gleam came into my eye. “LET’S READ THE TRILOGY ALOUD TOGETHER,” I said.

Success! We are a few chapters in. Our heroine, Candy Quackenbush (you gotta love these names) has just met a man who has antlers, from which hang little heads, sort of like Christmas tree ornaments, except unlike Christmas tree ornaments these heads like to argue.

What I Plan to Read Next

I really ought to start The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog if I want to finish my October reading challenge (“a book nominated for an award in 2017”) in, well, October. I have developed a sort of mental block on this book because I strongly suspect that it is going to have a Very Important Lesson about the importance of diversity & inclusiveness & not judging people based on race or religion, which is a lesson I agree with, but also one that I have read 5,000 times and I feel like that is enough.

It is entirely possible that I am wrong and the execution will not be as sledgehammer-y as I fear. I should just start reading & see.

Comments

[evelyn_b]

My fave so far is Aramis, mainly because he gets the most description of the Three Inseparables so I can see him clearly in my mind, with his baby fat and his baby stache, but I can definitely see how Athos is the Man D'Artagnan Wants To Be In Every Respect. Little buddy, you've got to learn to just apologize when you run directly into someone's wounded shoulder! I loved Athos staggering up to M. de Treville's office all, "You called for me so here I am, is this loyal or what" *faints*

ETA that I CANNOT CONDONE the thrashing of valets, however :((((((((

[osprey_archer]

YES ATHOS, staggering up to the office even though he is inches away from fainting. Of course he couldn't just send Porthos or Aramis with excuses! It was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to come himself.

I already feel sorry for the valets. They are clearly going to get the short end of the stick throughout the book.

[tamsin]

I love The Three Musketeers a lot, so I'm looking forward to your post!

[osprey_archer]

The Three Musketeers is going to be a wild ride!

[thisbluespirit]

of the non-supernatural variety: no giant helmets falling out of the sky here

Well, that's no fun! /maybe enjoyed Otranto too much.

[osprey_archer]

If every single Gothic novel had a giant helmet falling out the sky, it would get boring eventually! Probably. Maybe more of them should try it just to test this theory.

[thisbluespirit]

True! In both cases. ;-D

[missroserose]

I've never really been able to wade through any Dumas (stupid pride requiring that I get unabridged editions) but I am 100% on board with My Cousin Rachel and really need to get a copy to read by the fireplace this fall. Fall seems the most appropriate season for du Maurier.

[osprey_archer]

My Cousin Rachel is the perfect book for reading in front of a roaring fire. PERFECT.

[missroserose]

Brian is in London right now and his promise to bring me back a British copy. I’m so excited!

[missroserose]

Also now that I think about it, it wasn't Dumas I couldn't get through, it was Hugo - I tried to read both Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and both times got bogged down within the first hundred pages. I don't know that I've ever actually read anything by Dumas, although of course I know his classics mostly through osmosis...

[osprey_archer]

You might give Dumas a try, then! He jumps into the plot considerably faster than Hugo, and also doesn't share Hugo's habit of stopping dead to tell the reader All About Sewers, or Nunneries, or Whatever. I'm sure that if Hugo had written The Three Musketeers we would have gotten at least fifty pages dedicated purely to telling us the history of Richelieu.