Morland Dynasty: The Chevalier
The Chevalier by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
The Morland Dynasty: The Chevalier by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
originally published 1984
Warner Books, 2000
414 pages
Genre: Family saga, historical fiction
Synopsis & Review: 1689 – The Restoration enabled the Morland family to restore their own fortune, but now the Jacobite rebellion brings another threat to their security.
Annunciata Morland, fiercely loyal to the Stuart cause, follows her beloved king, James II, into exile. She leaves her gentle grandson, Matt, to oversee Morland Place in her absence. Without her wise presence, Matt finds himself in an arranged marriage to India Neville and at the mercy of a woman as heartless as she is beautiful. After a lonely and sheltered life he lurches between the exquisite pain of love and the torment of deep despair.
When James III-the Chevalier–returns to claim the Stuart throne, the Morlands are reunited in one country. Death and defeat threaten them, but their loves and loyalty prove stronger than kingly ambition. (jacket copy)
Sometimes I just get exhausted trying to summarize a plot that follows the vagaries of history. Don’t judge me.
Number seven of the Morland Dynasty opens just before the Glorious Revolution (which sucked), and traces the various Morlands through the Jacobite uprising of 1715 (aka, the ‘15–to the cool kids). With the current popularity of the Tudors–and to a lesser degree, the Plantagenets–the Stuarts, the Hanoverians, and the Jacobites get short shrift from historical fiction. I’m not sure why, though, as the intricacies of Jacobite intrigue are innately romantic and thrilling. I wonder whether perhaps intolerance of Jacobitism may have something to do with the Catholic connexion (there is still some anti-Papist sentiment both here and in the UK), or whether the complexities of loyalty to a King’s person versus to a country are too touchy a subject currently. (Note the drastic fall in US Civil War romantic fiction for the second half of the twentieth century, following the Civil Rights Movement.) Read the rest of this entry »
The Blue Castle
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
originally published 1926
Bantam, 14th printing, 1989
218 pages
Genre: Romance, satire, young adult
Synopsis & Review: Valancy Stirling—called ‘Doss” by her family because they’re jerks—turns thirty and is suddenly overwhelmed by how drab, unpleasant, and just plain loveless her life is. Mocked by her relatives for her unmarried state, her plainness, and her delicacy, she is treated like a child by her stuffy, judgmental relatives—and a halfwitted one at that. Worried over a chest pain, Valancy indulges in a very minor rebellion by going to a doctor not approved of by her family, but ends up feeling worse than ever when he races out of her appointment as though he forgot her entirely. A few days later, however, Valancy receives a letter from the doctor, a letter announcing that he has diagnosed her with a fatal heart malady, and that she has no more than a year to live, and perhaps far less. After a long, white night in which she examines her paltry life, Valancy rises in the morning with a sense of purpose.
She begins casting off her family’s oppressiveness by hacking away at the rose bush given her by Cousin Georgiana, a rose bush that has flourished, but never bloomed (HIGHLY SYMBOLIC). Her mother and cousin Stickles begin worrying as Valancy begins rearranging her bedroom furniture and answering back impudently instead of meekly assenting to any request/order. Uncle Benjamin notices something different when she fails to laugh along with his (terrible) jokes. But it is at a family dinner where Valancy lets loose which such a stream of perversity and unblushing observation that her family begins to think she’s quite mad.
Spurred on to ever greater heights of rebellion, Valancy then promptly packs her things and goes to stay with Roaring Abel Gay in order to care for her former schoolmate Cecily, who is dying after a long illness following the death of her out-of-wedlock child. Though the rest of the community shuns Cecily, Valancy makes the girl’s last days more comfortable, and earns the friendship of Roaring Abel and his friend, the mysterious and much gossiped about Barney Snaith. After Cecily’s death, Valancy presumes upon the friendship that has sprung up between herself and Barney, and explains to him that she too is dying, and would he marry her and help her to live her life tot he fullest for the time she has left?
Life with Barney is everything Valancy could have dreamt of, and she has never been happier. The only fly in her ointment is knowing that it will not last–and wondering whether Barney could learn to love her as she does him.
Oh, Lucy Maud, you are wicked! Who else could pen such a delightful romance and biting social satire in one slim novel? The Blue Castle is marvelously entertaining, and so funny–SO FUNNY. When Valancy let’s it all hang out at the family supper, anyone would be hard put to not laugh. It’s really a pity that Lucy Maud spent so much time writing so many series books when her stand-alone adult output is so very good. Read the rest of this entry »
George Eliot Mini-Challenge
The Anthony Trollope MiniChallenge is hosted by Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews.
This challenge is for 2009-2010. The challenge begins January 1, 2009 and goes through June 1, 2010.
The goal of this one is to read TWO of her books.
Prospective books:
1. Middlemarch
2. The Mill on the Floss
Anthony Trollope Mini-Challenge
The Anthony Trollope MiniChallenge is hosted by Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews.
This challenge is for 2009-2010. The challenge will begin January 1, 2009. The challenge will end August 31, 2010.
Read and/or watch TWO works by Anthony Trollope
For example:
Watching two movies
Reading two books
Reading one book; watching one movie
Prospective books:
1. Can You Forgive Her?
2. The Duke’s Children
1% Well-Read Challenge
1% Well-Read Challenge (5/10)
1morechapter is hosting the 1% We-Read Challenge, in which we read ten titles from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list.
There are three options, due to a recently revamped 1001 list:
- Read 10 titles from the original list from March 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.
- Read 10 titles from the new list from March 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009.
- Read 13 titles from the combined list (of almost 1300 titles) from March 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. In other words, “What were they thinking dropping titles from Dostoevsky and Jane Austen?”
For all options, overlaps with other challenges are allowed, and you may change your list at any time.
Being annoyed at the removal of both Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (two of my favorite Austens), I selected option 3.
Completed
1. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
2. Perfume – Patrick Süskind
3. The Turn of the Screw – Henry James
4. Brideshead Revisited – Eveleyn Waugh
5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Current list
Casino Royale – Ian Fleming
The Mysteries of Udolpho – Ann Radcliffe
Thérèse Raquin – Émile Zola
The Blithedale Romance – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Red and the Black – Stendhal
Tom Jones – Henry Fielding
(I’ve been participating in this since April, but I needed to move it.)
2010 100+ Reading Challenge
Since I so enjoyed participating in J. Kaye’s 100+ Challenge in 2009 (see my list here), I’m signing up for the 2010 Challenge as well. Only this time, my personal goal will be set at 200+ Let’s see how that turns out, shall we?
1. The goal is to read 100 or more books. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate.
2. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Library books, Young Reader, Nonfiction – as long as the book has an ISBN or equivalent or can be purchased as such, the book counts.
3. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.
4. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.
5. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010. Books started before the 1st do not count.
100+ Reading Challenge: 1 January – 31 December 2010
1. ?
