"the best natured and best bred woman in England"

I have been making a concerted effort to read more of the books on my own shelves.  Many of those books are non-fiction books about 18th and 19th century Britain, which has been my favorite era in history since reading Jane Austen for the first time.  But in recent years, I've moved away from British history, and many of those books have sat unread while my reading tastes have changed.

But I picked up Amanda Foreman's Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and I realized that my tastes haven't changed so much.  While I am so happy to be reading more widely and diversely than before, I do still love the Georgian era.  And very few people personify the era as well as the Duchess of Devonshire.

A fashion icon, a published author, a serious party-goer with a gambling addiction, a political powerhouse much more impressive than her husband, an amateur geologist, and a loving mother, Georgiana Cavendish holds, in one person, all the excess and glory we associate with the late 1700s.  I am not entirely sure how to provide a plot summary for a biography.  Suffice it to say that Foreman gives us insights into every stage of Georgiana's life, from her childhood as her mother's favorite child, to her failed marriage with the Duke of Devonshire, to her desperation to have a son, and her serious, ever-present concerns about her gambling debts.

Foreman also brings the entire era to life (at least, the era as it was lived by the ridiculously rich people at the very top).  She talks about 18th century politics at length and with authority, covers the French Revolution, and gives us a glimpse into the fashionable life.  I admit the descriptions of men's fashion in particular completely bowled me over:

Fox's particular contribution was to experiment with hair color, powdering his hair blue one day, red the next. He wore multicolored shoes and velvet frills...

I mean, can you imagine this man with red hair and velvet frills?  The mind boggles as to why all painters neglected to include this key identifying characteristic in any of his portraits.

Charles James Fox, alas without red or blue powdered hair

Georgiana was a leader of fashion herself, with the most epic hairstyles you can imagine.  She is probably best remembered for her high-flying lifestyle and the scandalous three's company type existence she lived with her husband and her best friend, Lady Elizabeth Foster.  Bess  also happened to be her husband's mistress for several years and bore two of his children.  But this is unfair to Georgiana.  Foreman admits in her introduction that she fell more in love with Georgiana the more she read about her, and it's hard to read this book without falling in love with her yourself.  Her life was so bittersweet:

She was an acknowledged beauty yet unappreciated by her husband, a popular leader of the ton who saw through its hypocrisy, and a woman whom people loved who was yet so insecure in her ability to command love that she became dependent on the suspect devotion of Lady Elizabeth Foster.  She was a generous contributor to charitable causes who nevertheless stole from her friends, a writer who never published under her own name, a devoted mother who sacrificed one child to save the other three, a celebrity and patron of the arts in an era when married women had no legal status, a politician without a vote, and a skilled tactician a generation before the development of professional party politics.

Seriously, the Duchess was no joke.  We get to know her pretty well, but there are still so many more things I wanted to know.  So many things hinted at but frustratingly hard to find out.  This may be because so many of her papers were lost or censored by later (ahem, Victorian) generations.  It could also be because Foreman didn't have the inclination to write a much longer book.  But there are so many events or people hinted at that fall to the wayside later on - for example, what was so unlikable about the Duke's daughter Caroline that everyone commented upon how awkward and weird she was as a child?  And then she just disappears!  And why in the world did Georgiana's daughter Harryo want to marry her aunt's lover?  And what was Lady Elizabeth Foster really after?  How did Georgiana treat her servants?  How does one even begin to prepare for a dinner party with 1000 guests?  I want to know!

But what I do know, even with those minor frustrations, is that history has given Georgiana the short shrift.  She was so much more than she is given credit for, and when you read her letters and see how desperately lonely she was, and how she overcame that loneliness so much to be politically savvy and wonderfully kind and so generous, you will be as enchanted with her as London society was.

But if it was difficult to read this book and not fall in love with the duchess it was well nigh impossible to read it and not be completely astounded by the amount of money the aristocracy spent, burned, gambled, frittered away or just lost track of.  Many of these people had 7- and 8-digit incomes or personal wealth and practically all of them were in debt.  To each other.  For gambling losses.  I cannot even comprehend how one can be a millionaire one day and then lose an entire fortune that night to a passing acquaintance.  I just... wow.  Even though I feel pretty familiar with the Georgian era, I think I must severely underestimate just how strong the sense of entitlement was among the super-rich.

I thoroughly enjoyed this biography and highly recommend it.  As Foreman points out, Georgiana was in every sense of the word a product of her time.  She brilliantly maneuvered not just in the "women's sphere" of hearth and home but also used her influence and friends to make real and lasting impact on the larger world that we historically associate with men.  She breaks down the entire notion of "separate spheres" and shows just how valuable women could be in the political arena.  She's pretty amazing, and I'm glad to know more about her.

Note:  The Georgians were really, really dramatic in pretty much everything they did.  They wrote very effusive letters, they made grandiose gestures, said very intense things... it was truly awe-inspiring to read.  I think the Victorians were pretty dramatic, too, so WHEN DID WE BECOME SO CALM?  (Written in all capitals for ironic effect.)  I was truly uncomfortable with the hair-tearing, the excessive weeping, the cloyingly affectionate (to me) descriptions - when did this happen?  No wonder no one faints any more.  We are all in a state of perpetual calm.

Eunuchs and Espionage at the Opera

Anatomy of Murder, by Imogen Robertson, is the second book in the Crowther & Westerman mystery series set in Georgian England, following Instruments of Darkness.  I read the first book two years ago and do not remember much about it.  All I really know is that I enjoyed it and liked the idea of a platonic man/woman detective team in 18th century England.  So when I saw the second book at the library, I finally picked it up and got around to reading it.

The book picks up fairly soon after the last one ended.  Harriet Westerman's husband has returned to England, though he is not the same man he was when he left.  And then a body is found in the Thames, and all sorts of war secrets are at risk, and the government asks Harriet and her friend Crowther to get on the case.

This is the second book in a series that isn't very popular, so I am not sure how much to give away from the plot of the first book (which I hardly remember, anyway) or from this book.  Luckily, though, the mystery wasn't really the key for me here.  I was reading for the gender roles!

Imogen Robertson was pretty savvy in her setup of these mystery novels.  She has Mr. Crowther, a wealthy and eccentric gentleman that people don't really know but are willing to tolerate because he's rich and comes from an old family.  Then there's Mrs. Westerman, who is married to a naval hero.  However, Harriet Westerman's oddities are less acceptable because she's a woman; she's not meant to go running around town trying to find criminals.

Harriet has a younger sister, who is very proper, and a young son and daughter.  Her sister often disapproves of Harriet's actions and tells her so, pointing out that Harriet is making life a lot harder for her own family, particularly the females.  But none of these lives are as difficult as those lived by the poor people of London, whom Robertson introduces us to through a parallel story.  Thus, in one book, we are exposed to gender roles, class restrictions, and how family can both support and hinder you.

There's a lot going on in Anatomy of Murder, and at times it was a little difficult to follow and seemed to wander a bit.  I admit I lost interest in the whole murder plot about halfway through, mostly because there were so many layers and characters involved that I had trouble keeping everyone straight.

But I had no trouble remembering why I was so excited about this series in the first place, and I'm glad I picked this book up, even though it took me forever to actually start reading it, and then a pretty long time to finish it.  I am very excited to get to know Harriet Crowther better.  And as time goes on and she navigates her conflicting desires to be a good mother, be a valued sister, and still do what she most wants to do, I think her story will only become more compelling.  In this way, Harriet Westerman reminds me a lot of Lady Trent in A Natural History of Dragons, and I think readers who are excited to learn more about Lady Trent's life will enjoy being introduced to Harriet Westerman, too.

An ideal wife should have Meekness, Patience, Sincerity, Prudence, Zeal ...

I fell in love with Lauren Thatcher Ulrich a couple of years ago when I read her Pulitzer Prize-winning book about a colonial midwife, A Midwife's Tale.  Immediately, I purchased Good Wives:  Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650-1750.  I just finished Good Wives last night and let me tell you, it is just as fascinating as A Midwife's Tale.

Good Wives has a subtitle that is quite descriptive but still only hints at its details and depths.  In the introduction to this book, Ulrich mentions a gravestone that says a woman was "Eminent for Holiness, Prayerfulness, Watchfulness, Zeal, Prudence, Sincerity, Humility, Meekness, Patience, Weanedness from ye World, Self-denial, Publik-Spiritedness, Diligence, Faithfulness and Charity."

Nowadays, we would think this woman was either a) not real or b) really boring.  But Ulrich points out that in the 17th and 18th centuries, people did not try to be individuals, but to conform and be ideal.  "A good wife earned the dignity of anonymity," Ulrich says, and then she sets out in her book to show readers exactly what a "good wife" was - a loving mother, an obedient wife, and a kind neighbor.  And she also shows us what happens when women strayed from those norms, for good and bad reasons, and what the consequences were.  It is a fascinating study about a population that did not leave much behind to describe their lives to us.

Allons! Vive le republic!

I heard about Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche from Heidenkind when she read it and reviewed it on the Project Gutenberg Project blog.  It sounded like such a swashbuckling and fantastic story!  Plus, it takes place during the French Revolution, which is one of my favorite historical periods to read about (not one that I would ever choose to live through, however).

Scaramouche is the stage name of Andre-Louis Moreau.  Andre-Louis does not know who his parents are but was raised by a man in the French gentility.  After his best friend is killed in a duel by a marquis, Andre-Louis vows revenge and joins the revolution, giving stirring speeches that really get the people going and rioting and mobbing.  Then he becomes an actor and OWNS the stage.  And then he becomes a fencing master and is AMAZING at that.

Basically, Andre-Louis is good at everything he does.  While this generally annoys me in a character, in this situation it did not because, hey, he's a swashbuckling hero who saves France from the aristos, and he does it in style.

This is the sort of story that works best if you devote a weekend to reading it.  I, unfortunately, did not do this, but instead read it in fits and bursts over the course of several weeks.  This often caused me to forget people's names and their relationships to one another and that was to my detriment.  Finally, I powered through half the book in one evening, and then I got completely absorbed and wrapped up in the story.  It was fantastic.

In many ways, Scaramouche is the stereotypical adventure story of a man who rises through society by his wits and his skill and his ability to keep a cool head in a crisis.  But just because a story's arc is fairly predictable, that doesn't mean that it can't also be REALLY fun, and this book is just a LOT of fun.  There are dastardly villains, beautiful heroines, greedy friends, and a tale of pure vengeance.

It's a great read for this time of year, and I highly recommend it if you want a fun and exciting story that will take you back to days of powdered wigs and swords.

Also, there's a movie version.  I must find it!

The unlikely life of Aminata Diallo

Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name is also known by the (frankly more arresting though un-PC) title of The Book of Negroes.  The Publishers Weekly summary is pretty good, so I'll just use theirs below:

Stunning, wrenching and inspiring, the fourth novel by Canadian novelist Hill (Any Known Blood) spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo, West Africa, in 1745. The novel opens in 1802, as Aminata is wooed in London to the cause of British abolitionists, and begins reflecting on her life. Kidnapped at the age of 11 by British slavers, Aminata survives the Middle Passage and is reunited in South Carolina with Chekura, a boy from a village near hers. Her story gets entwined with his, and with those of her owners: nasty indigo producer Robinson Appleby and, later, Jewish duty inspector Solomon Lindo. During her long life of struggle, she does what she can to free herself and others from slavery, including learning to read and teaching others to, and befriending anyone who can help her, black or white. Hill handles the pacing and tension masterfully, particularly during the beginnings of the American revolution, when the British promise to free Blacks who fight for the British: Aminata's related, eventful travels to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone follow. In depicting a woman who survives history's most trying conditions through force of intelligence and personality, Hill's book is a harrowing, breathtaking tour de force.

I purchased this book earlier this year in paperback, but I read it in the audiobook version.  I enjoyed the audiobook, but I don't know that the narrator was so great that I would recommend the audiobook version over the physical or digital version.  The book is worth reading, period, in whatever form.  But I don't think hearing the book was any better than reading it would have been.

That said, though, there's a lot happening in this book that is amazing whichever way you experience it, and if audiobook is the only way you can read it, well... then you should read it as an audiobook.

Musings: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee has become a classic in American history.  I've had the book for a few years, but I own a bulky hardcover edition and just couldn't motivate myself to carry it around with me.  Luckily, it was also available via the Chicago Public Library's digital audiobook collection, and I was able to remove it from my TBR list that way.  I'm glad I did.  While so much of this book is about long-term suffering and a sense of doomed inevitability, it is also about the power of resistance and standing up for what you believe in, even if you know that you are going to lose.  In Brown's preface to the new edition of the book, he said that the history is in print in so many countries which have populations of people who have been beaten back and oppressed through time.

In a way, that made me feel better.  One of the worst things about knowing history is knowing that we are doomed to repeat it - collective human memory is too short for us to remember all of our misdeeds in the past so that we can avoid them in the future.  While it's no better to know that Native Americans are not the only people who have been driven to near extinction by conquering forces, it is easier to accept the fact if you realize that this same thing has happened the world over, time and time again.  There's a fatalism that pervades this book - you know when you begin reading it just how it will end, but that doesn't make the events any less horrifying or depressing.

[TSS] Musings: Instruments of Darkness

Instruments of Darkness is the first book in Imogen Robertson's mystery series set in 1780s England.  One morning, Mrs. Harriet Westerman comes across a dead body on her property.  She immediately notifies one of her neighbors, Mr. Crowther, a recluse well known for his scientific studies and papers.  They find a signet ring on the corpse that matches the coat of arms of the Earl of Thornleigh, the most prominent landholder in the region.  Could the body be that of the long-missing heir?  And if not, how is the dead man involved in all the dark doings of Thornleigh Hall?

If you've been reading this blog for some time, you know that I am basically obsessed with Georgian era Britain.  I've branched out a bit in my reading in recent years, but the long 18th century in England is still the one that I am most comfortable with as a setting and the setting for which I am most likely to make an impulse buy.  It seems like these days, historical mysteries are a dime a dozen, particularly those set in this general time period.  So I'm not sure why a blurb review drew me to this series over all the others.  But I'm so glad that it did.

Musings: Behind Closed Doors - At Home in Georgian England

I read and enjoyed Amanda Vickery's book The Gentleman's Daughter:  Women's Lives in Georgian England, so I was really looking forward to getting my hands on her newest book, Behind Closed Doors:  At Home in Georgian England.  Vickery did so well in describing the lives of women, their roles in the home, in the village and in the city, that I was very excited to read more about their historical domicile, the house.  But Behind Closed Doors is firmly not only about women, but also about the men.  Vickery points out that we often associate the home with women, but that men were at home doing all sorts of things, too- they just wrote about it far less often than women did.

Similar to her previous book, Vickery uses court records, letters, account books and many other primary sources to pull together her stories here.  But, to me, the book felt less like a set of stories and more like a thesis that Vickery was trying to prove.  She seemed set in each chapter on proving something to her audience, and instead of a very interesting and detailed description of life in England during the "long 18th century," we get proof that women's taste was not historically "feminine" and that men really did respect women's opinions on things such as wallpaper and furniture.  The result is a book that is full of interesting facts and fascinating characters, but is also drier and less engaging than its predecessor.

Musings: A Midwife's Tale

 Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is a pretty amazing person.  I cannot describe to you just how much research she did before presenting the world with the gift that is A Midwife's Tale:  The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary 1785-1812, but I assure you that it was a RIDICULOUS amount.  Ulrich can take an entry that says, "Calld from Mrs Howard to Mr McMasters to see their son William who is very low.  Tarried there this night" into this fantastic commentary about social class, Revolutionary era medicine, town gossip and so, so much more.  It is absolutely amazing.  I feel like Martha Ballard wrote her diary just for  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich to read and find mysteries to be unlocked.

 A Midwife's Tale is about Martha Ballard's life in Hallowell, Maine in the period following the Revolutionary War.  Ballard practiced as as midwife for the town, and she was very, very good at her job.  She also kept a diary very consistently, every day, for many, many years.  Until Laurel Thatcher Ulrich came along, no one really knew what to do with the diary.  It is not exactly loaded with juicy details,as you can see from the snippet I shared above, but it is written very consistently.  Ulrich decided not to look at the diary in a vacuum.  She read it and then annotated her research with other diaries from the same town, judicial records from the region, land grant information, local history, and all sorts of other fantastic things.  The result is a rich, nuanced, and highly readable history of not just one woman or one town, but of an entire network of people who lived and worked together in a highly structured society.

Joint Musings: Lions of the West: Chapter 4 - David Crockett

A couple of months ago, Kari from Five Borough Books asked me to read Lions of the West:  Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion with her and participate in a blog discussion about the book.  I jumped at the chance, not only because I wanted to get even more in-depth on this historical era, but also because Kari is really pretty awesome. 

Lions of the West presents short biographies of eight men who were integral to the process of America expanding west across the North American continent.  Kari and I chose to discuss each man in-dept over the course of a few weeks.  We started the discussion here with the chapter on Thomas Jefferson.  Below is our discussion of the fourth chapter, on Davey Crockett.  We hope you enjoy the below discussion and that it piques your interest enough to delve more into American history and understand the complex relationships that existed, and continue to exist, between so many different cultures.

See our post on Chapter 3, Johnny Appleseed, here. 

Joint Musings: Lions of the West, Chapter 1

A couple of years ago, I started reading and learning more about Native Americans.  I fell in love with Sherman Alexie, bought a copy of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, started reading some articles about the Indian experience, visited the National Museum of the American Indian in DC, and realized that so much of American history happened with Indians and whites together, whereas now the two are nearly separate.

A couple of months ago, Kari from Five Borough Books asked me to read Lions of the West:  Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion with her and participate in a blog discussion about the book.  I jumped at the chance, not only because I wanted to get even more in-depth on this historical era, but also because Kari is really pretty awesome.

Lions of the West presents short biographies of eight men who were integral to the process of America expanding west across the North American continent.  Kari and I chose to discuss each man in-dept over the course of a few weeks.  Below is our discussion of the first chapter that centered on Thomas Jefferson.  On Thursday, Kari will post our discussion of the second chapter, on Andrew Jackson.  We hope you enjoy the below discussion and that it piques your interest enough to delve more into American history and understand the complex relationships that existed, and continue to exist, between so many different cultures.

See our discussion of Chapter 2, Andrew Jackson, on Kari's blog here.

Musings: Craze - Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason

Whew, this book has been on my TBR since summer 2006, so I felt quite satisfied changing its mark in LibraryThing from "To Read" to "Currently Reading" and then finally adding the tag "2012" as I completed it.  Taking books off the TBR pile feels so GOOD!  You'd think I'd do it more often just for the thrill of it.

Craze:  Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason has such an amazing title, I am a little disturbed that I let it sit on my shelf unread for so long.  Really, how could I go over five years without reading a book that has the word "debauchery" in the title?

Craze is about the proliferation of gin, a potent new alcohol, in London during the mid-18th century.  It was a pretty new liquor from the Continent that the London distillers fiddled with (pretty horribly, from what the book says) and sold at very cheap prices to the working poor in England's capital.  This alarmed the upper classes because there was a lot of drinking going on, and moreover, the drunkenness was visible to the rich, which was NOT ok.  So laws were passed- several, in fact- over the course of about 20 years.  This book details the Gin craze, the laws to govern distribution of the liquor, and the citizens' reactions to those laws.

Musings: An Accomplished Woman

Jude Morgan's An Accomplished Woman is one of his novels set in the late 18th century.  In the style of Jane Austen's Emma, it centers on an independent woman living in the country with her aging father and her many strong opinions.

In 1799 Lincolnshire, Lydia Templeton has just reached the age of 30.  She spends most of her days reading and walking and enjoying her life, but all that goes astray when her godmother Lady Eastmond asks her to accompany a beautiful young heiress, Miss Phoebe Rae, to Bath for a season.  Phoebe is young and naive and impressionable and has managed to fall in love with two men and needs help choosing between them both.  Lydia dreads this task like no other, but ultimately decides to become Phoebe's companion.  Luckily, her neighbor, former suitor, and witty friend Mr. Durrant will be there, too, hoping to find a wife and cut his useless nephew out of his succession.

Musings: The London Monster

I have had Jan Bondeson's The London Monster on my shelf since early 2007.  I am not entirely sure what made me pick it up.  Do you ever try to figure that out?  Why suddenly, a book you've overlooked for years pops off the shelf at you and you finally settle down to read it?  I am sometimes able to trace my reasoning, but in this case, no idea.

The book is about a series of crimes in London in the early 1790s.  Pretty women complained of a man accosting them on the street, saying dirty things and then often cutting them across the thigh or behind with a sharp blade and then laughing in their faces while they screamed in terror.  Sometimes, he would insist that they smell a bunch of artificial flowers and then shove the nosegay in their faces, cutting them with a hidden blade.  He never killed any of them, but he wreaked havoc on the streets of the city and made many women fear to go out at night.  Eventually, Rhynwick Williams was arrested, charged and found guilty of the crimes and sentenced to a steep prison sentence.  He was defended by the fabulously namd Theophilus Swift, a larger-than-life Irishman who liked to be the center of attention and made the trial even more fantastic.

Musings: The Lacemaker & the Princess

The Lacemaker and the Princess is a young adult book set on the cusp of and during the French Revolution.  Isabella is 11 years old and works as a lacemaker in the town of Versailles.  One day, her grandmother sends her to the palace to deliver lace to a customer.  Isabelle takes the opportunity to wander around the palace and manages to catch the attention of Marie Antoinette, who promptly takes Isabelle to befriend her young daughter, Therese.  Therese and Isabelle become friends, spending their days together along with another young girl, Ernestine.  But Isabelle hears about stirring discontent from her older brother, George, and life at the palace becomes increasingly tense as the French people begin to rebel against the King.

Review: Ladies of the Grand Tour

Ladies of the Grand Tour:  British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment & Adventure in 18th Century Europe was a complete impulse buy for me some years ago.  I pretty much buy any non-fiction book I find about Georgian or Regency England, and this one sounded so completely up my alley!  Georgian era?  Check.  Women?  Check.  Travel?  Check.  And there went my check to pay for the book.

Dolan's book is separated into nine chapters, most of which detail why upper-class Englishwomen went to the Continent during the 18th century.  Some went for the reasons we go now- to see the sights, to absorb a different culture, to learn more about the world around them.  But a very large number also went abroad to escape unhappy marriages or scandals at home.

Review: The Black Moth

The Black Moth is Georgette Heyer's first novel, written while she was a teenager.  She uses updated versions of some of the characters in her more popular novel These Old Shades (which is where the title These Old Shades comes from).  In mid-1700s in England, an earl has passed away, and his eldest son must be found to impart the news.  The son, Jack Carstares, however, was disgraced six years ago when he accepted blame that should have been his younger brother's for cheating at cards.  After years abroad, John is now "working" as a highwayman in Surrey.  His younger brother Richard has aged unnaturally since the cheating incident and is married to a temperamental beauty who is likely to bankrupt him and possibly leave him for another man.

And then there is the dangerous and enigmatic Duke of Andover (known as "the Devil") who is pulling all the strings (particularly those attached to the purse).  He falls so deeply in love with the lovely young Diana Beauleigh that he attempts a kidnapping, only to be foiled by Jack Carstares.  This sets off a chain of events that changes everyone's lives in dramatic (and thoroughly entertaining) ways until everyone is sorted out and settled to live happily ever after.

Review: The Silver Blade

Title: The Silver Blade

Author: Sally Gardner

Publisher: Orion Books

# of Pages: 303

Rating: 6/10

Product Description
A stirring tale of magic and revolution- fans of The Red Necklace won't want to miss it.

The year is 1794. With his beloved Sido safely in England and the Reign of Terror at its height, mysterious Yann returns to revolutionary France to smuggle out aristocratic refugees who will otherwise face the guillotine. But while the two are apart, Yann’s Gypsy origins prejudice SidoÂ’s guardian against their marriage, thwarting their longed-for reunion. When Sido is kidnapped under strange circumstances, however, Yann must use all his strength and courage to outwit the evil Count Kalliovski, rescue Sido, and help save all of France.

As she did in The Red Necklace and the award-winning I, Coriander, Sally Gardner spins an epic tale that combines a vivid sense of history, characters full of Dickensian drama and fascination, and a sizzling adventure with touches of magic and romance.

I appear to be on a serious young adult fantasy kick recently. Well, recently being the past three days, over which time I have finished three books. Good thing they have all been pretty quick reads, so it doesn't seem too much like I have no social life! Seriously, I have plans every other night this week...

The Silver Blade is the sequel (and I think there may only be two books in the series because the story wraps up pretty neatly here) to Sally Gardner's The Red Necklace, which I reviewed here. It is historical fantasy set during the French Revolution. It centers mainly around Yann, a gypsy with the power to move objects and read people's minds and his lady love Sido, who has no magical power to do anything (except be beautiful- more on that later).

The plot in this book was darker and more supernatural than its predecessor. The villain, Count Kalliovsky (sidenote: why not Comte? Every other aristocratic title in this book is done in the French form, so why is there a count instead of a Comte? And Kalliovsky? That isn't even a French name. I think the author was trying to make it seem like he was from Transylvania. But I digress.), is truly evil and just... disturbing. In The Red Necklace, I thought he was more interesting as a character, but in this one, there was really nothing even like that to redeem him. You always knew what he would do because he would do the cruelest thing possible. New characters, on the villain side, were also introduced in this book, but they also had no depth. They were just evil, pure and simple.

And then, on the glorious side of light and goodness, Yann and Sido. I really liked Yann in The Red Necklace. He was a boy who had his head on straight and knew what he was about. He still is, in this book, except that he takes these really annoying turns of being a lovestruck mooncalf, bemoaning the loss of his soul mate Sido, who is off in London. And Sido is even worse than he is because she doesn't even really do anything in the book at all, except be in love with Yann. If she had a more active role, then it may have been easier to take. But she spends very little time doing anything except writing letters to her boyfriend. It is not often that a book can make me physically roll my eyes, but this book managed. This is probably why love letters are best kept private; they have a very different effect on anyone who is not the intended audience. Yann and Sido literally go through the story making several people in the book fall in love with them (oh, woe are them) and managing to remain steadfast and pure to their True Loves. Sigh. It's a well-worn path of a story, really. And while I like the dashing action and the French Revolution setting, this book just didn't catch me the way its predecessor did.

Overall, though, I'd recommend the series. The good parts outweigh the bad, and maybe other people won't be quite so annoyed by the moping as I as.

Another small part of this book which annoyed me (and it annoys me about so many books that take place in any historical period) is the belief that everyone in "Society" is dull and vain and empty-headed. I say it's a small part, but it's something that greatly annoys me.

[Aarti steps onto soapbox]

How is this possibly the case? It seems like every book that takes place in English Society between the years of about 1600 to 1900 does this. The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade, between themselves, do it on both the male and female side. So no one in London in the 1790s was interesting at all.

The formula is pretty basic. The book will feature a Feisty Young Lady or a Charming Young Man. We will know that the lady is feisty, or that the young man is charming, because the character will make it clear to us in some way that they Do Not Belong in society. Everyone around them is foppish and boring and only interested in clothing or gossip. Feisty Young Lady/Charming Young Man is the only person in all of London who is not a completely dull waste of life. And the poor dear is miserable about it. Honestly, how rude and egotistical is this premise?

It implies, fundamentally, that anyone who had money or "family" in England (or any European country, I assume) for about 300 years was ignorant and foppish. This is very much at odds with the fact that, for those years, the rich and landed were the only ones who could afford an education, and were the ones driving thought, socially and politically. They read. They wrote. They conversed. I cannot believe that a person versed in all the Greek classics, mastered in a musical instrument, hostess of political salons, and a great many other things besides, would be boring. She would not only discuss her ballgowns. The assumption that all these people with money and nice clothes and a penchant for a big party who attended balls were universally shallow and dandy-like is just annoying. Somewhere in that huge mass of people, someone had to be worth of conversation.

And honestly, if the Feisty Young Lady/Charming Young Man is that out of place in society, well... maybe the character just isn't making any effort to get along with people. After all, it's a two-way street. If you find everyone around you stiff and dull, then they are likely to find you rude and stand-offish. Not the way to win friends.

[Aarti steps off soapbox]

Review: The Lieutenant

Title: The Lieutenant

Author: Kate Grenville

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Books

# of Pages: 307

Favorite Line: "But she had shown him the existence of the man he could be."

Rating: 8/10

This review is based on an advance reader's edition.

Product Description

A stunning follow-up to her Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning book, The Secret River, Grenville’s The Lieutenant is a gripping story about friendship, self-discovery, and the power of language set along the unspoiled shores of 1788 New South Wales. As a boy, Daniel Rooke was an outsider. Ridiculed in school and misunderstood by his parents, Daniel could only hope that he would one day find his place in life. When he joins the marines and travels to Australia as a lieutenant on the First Fleet, Daniel finally sees his chance for a new beginning. As his countrymen struggle to control their cargo of convicts and communicate with nearby Aboriginal tribes, Daniel constructs an observatory to chart the stars and begin the work he prays will make him famous. But the place where they have landed will prove far more revelatory than the night sky. Out on his isolated point, Daniel comes to intimately know the local Aborigines and forges a remarkable connection with one girl that will change the course of his life. The Lieutenant is a remarkable story about the poignancy of a friendship that defies linguistic and cultural barriers, and shows one man that he is capable of exceptional courage.

I think I have gone on and on about my love of Kate Grenville's The Secret River several times before. It is one of my all-time favorite books, not only for the plot and the characters, but for Grenville's complete mastery over the English language. She knows how to wield it and wind it and make it magical. Part of the excitement of opening a new book, for me, is in the hopes of discovering an author like Grenville, who can take my breath away with her writing.

The Lieutenant centers around the same theme as The Secret River- the colonization of Australia by the British, and the subsequent race relations between the British and the natives, the struggles of conscience many people faced. She approaches this topic, always, in a manner that manages to be sympathetic to both sides. I think this is probably a very hard line to walk, so she is deserving of praise for it. Her language in this book is just as remarkable as it is in The Secret River- she uses such simple words, really, but she uses them so well. I don't know how she does it, but I wish that I could.

Somehow, though, this story did not have the same magic for me that The Secret River did. I did not feel as emotionally invested in the characters. That's not to say that Daniel Rooke is not a commendable and admirable person, or that he wasn't fleshed out enough. He was- there was just something slightly flat about him to me. And I don't think I ever got to know any of the other characters well enough to warm to them, though I certainly had strong feelings about several of them. The spark, though, did not ignite into a flame.

This book is actually shorter than it seems- I read it pretty quickly, and I don't think I was rushing at all to finish it. I think Grenville spends more time on Rooke's life before he reaches Australia, and so the time he is in Australia seems truncated in comparison. And the way she ends the book is bewildering to me- I don't think we know enough of the man throughout the rest of the story to be able to make the leap she does at the end of it. Rooke disappointed me as a character after the complexity of William Thornhill in The Secret River. I think she could have developed him more and made the story a bit longer to give readers a better read on him.

I did enjoy reading this book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in Australian history and race relations. But I would much, much more highly recommend The Secret River. It is fantastic.

Review: The Red Necklace

Title: The Red Necklace

Author: Sally Gardner

Publisher: Orion Books

# of Pages: 374

Favorite Line: He had a large, needy, greedy face that gathered itself into a weak, undefined chin and had about it the promise of perpetual disappointment.

Rating: 9/10

From Booklist
*Starred Review* A Gypsy boy, Yann, and the dwarf who has raised him are caught up in drama on and off the stage, where they work with a magician and his automaton. Outside their Parisian theater, revolution is beginning to boil. Inside, the magician is murdered by the villainous Count Kallovski, who has Yann in his sights as well. So begins a finely crafted tale that crosses years and crisscrosses countries, as Yann becomes a young man with a mission: to save the lovely Sido from her heartless father, even as he struggles with the extraordinary gifts bestowed upon him by his Gypsy heritage. If the success of historical fiction depends on how well setting and story mesh, this is a very successful book, indeed. Gardner sweeps readers into a turbulent time, dissecting eighteenth-century French society and the evolution of the revolution, from a yearning for liberty to a chaotic bloodbath. The history becomes personal when seen through the eyes of an astoundingly rich, carefully drawn cast, whose lives are interwoven like pieces of string in an elaborate cat’s cradle. Scores are waiting to be settled on every page; this is a heart-stopper. Grades 9-12. --Ilene Cooper

Honestly, I don't think many other books could be so well-designed to be right up my alley. This book is what I dub "historical fantasy," and it is great! I think the French Revolution is a fascinating (and terrifying) period in history, and it lends itself to novels and fantasy really well. I have often mulled over the thought of starting a reading challenge that centers around the Revolution because it's just such a rich period of history. If I decide to go forward with one, I hope a lot of people choose to read this book. And, wonderfully, there's a sequel coming out later this year- The Silver Blade.

The Red Necklace (I really feel the title The Scarlet Necklace would have been better. Red sounds a bit blase, but that is a minor quibble.) is a really riveting young adult fantasy novel that focuses on a French boy of gypsy origins, Yann, who has magical abilities to move things and read people's minds. It also features a young aristocrat woman (beautiful, of course), Sido, who is trying to escape marriage to a vile, older man who excellently reinvents himself with each change in the political climate of France. The characters are all very richly-drawn and engaging. The story gets a bit bogged down in itself a couple of times, but generally moves at a clipping pace.

I really like the way Sally Gardner set up the story, too- showing different sides of the conflict. The French Revolution was certainly a long time coming, but she shows every side of the bloody mess objectively. Sido is an aristocrat whose servants love and defend her; her father is one who is held up as a symbol of aristocratic gluttony. Their servants are eager and excited by the revolution, but there are others that are horrifyingly taken over by the mob mentality. I also liked the bonus of Yann and his mentor being of gypsy background. It added another nuance to the story without overpowering it. I am excited to see how that backstory develops. There is also a somewhat Star Wars-esque plotline introduced near the end, but I won't get into that one- don't want to ruin the read for anyone else.

All in all, a really fun and interesting read. Highly recommended if you like fantasy or historical fiction. Young adult fantasy is definitely where it's at these days :-)

PS- And how fortuitous that I read and finished this book just in time for Bastille Day!