The Bedside, Bathtub, & Armchair Companion to Jane Austen

The Bedside... compiles just about everything you want to know about Jane Austen and then some. There are detailed summaries of all of her novels, her incomplete works, and her juvenilia. It also includes some peculiarities of Regency England (such as a ha-ha, which is a ditch to keep livestock off the lawn and gardens of a manor house. I got to see a ha-ha when I went to Wales.). Need to know the difference between a curricle and a barouche? This book gives an entire rundown of all the types of carriages in Jane's world. [Note: a curricle is a sporty 2 seater carriage that is driven with 2 horses - sort of a Regency version of a Miata (all the wealthier single young men - Mr. Darcy, Henry Tilney, etc. - drive this). A barouche is like a Rolls Royce - luxurious, roomy, and very expensive (Lady Catherine de Bourgh's favorite means of travel).] If you have a curiosity about the food (white soup, for example, is made of veal stock with almonds and cream - very expensive ingredients) of Jane's day, it's here. This includes the "meals" - breakfast and dinner (no lunch until after Jane's death) - and what and how the food was served (2 courses). There is a splendid essay on the clothing of the Regency period with JASNA's costuming expert Baronda Bradley (someone I know! We're both members of the JASNA - North Texas chapter).

The book is partitioned into several chapters and subsections of related material of short(ish) essays and analyses. It is very well written - lots of information with lots of humor. These editors know their Jane, definitely. What's nice about this compilation is that you don't have to read the whole thing at once. I dipped into sections of interest every so often - and read leisurely. It took a couple of months to read the entire thing. It was a joy.

This book is a MUST for Janites.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

Hmmmm...

I'm not sure what to think about this novel by Amanda Grange. In general, continuation of Jane Austen's novels leaves me cold - no one can write like Jane. The best of the lot is a pallid imitation of Jane's work. This is no exception. Lots of folks are mad for this book and I fail to see why. Maybe because I didn't finish it. I don't know. The novel begins on the wedding day of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, plus Lizzie's sister Jane and Mr. Bingley. Something is amiss. On the night of their wedding Darcy decides they should go to Europe for their honeymoon rather than go to the Lake District. There they meet Darcy's "other" family, who live in Germany - and what a family it is. They even meet up with Lady Catherine who has been pursuing them since the wedding. The "mystery" is why Darcy hasn't consummated his marriage to Lizzie. She's confused and frustrated, and rightly so. And then the novel gets mysteriouser and mysteriouser.

I get what Grange wants to do. She's placed this story in line with the Gothic romance novels of the period (Ann Radcliffe mainly) and that Jane made fun of in Northanger Abbey. It's a bodice-ripper - literally (got to get to those throats somehow!).

My problem is that these characterizations are nothing like Jane's characterizations. Elizabeth, so lively with fine eyes, is depressed, unhappy, and about as fascinating as a turnip. At one point Grange has Lizzie faint! Lizzie?! Darcy seems closer to the original in that he is aloof, morose, and mysterious. But other characterizations are pretty much over the top - especially Lady Catherine who was someone Jane satirized and made fun of. Here she is frightening and evil - she's out to get Elizabeth and no mistake.

Grange is doing - or trying to do - to P&P what Jane did to thrillers and those who read them in Northanger Abbey. In my view, she didn't succeed. Perhaps if the writing was better or tighter - it seemed to drag on and on - I would have "got" it. But I didn't.

However, I'm in favor of anything that gets people to read Jane - even if vampires are involved (don't get me wrong - I LOVE vampire novels). And if this and other new pastiches on the best seller lists - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters - can create more fans, then okay. I wish it were a better read.

Hmmm...

The Private Patient

The Baroness James of Holland Park, i.e., P.D. James, has pushed her beloved Adam Dalgliesh out into the publishing world once again. The Private Patient is latest of the Dalgliesh mystery novels. Despite Baroness James' age (88) she has lost none of her acuity, subtlety, and inventiveness.

The "private patient" is Rhoda Gradwyn, a well-known scandal reporter in the British tabloid tradition. She digs up the dirt no matter where it is or who it destroys. She has asked a cosmetic surgeon to remove a prominent and ugly facial scar that her father had inflicted on her during a drunken violent spree when she was a child. But why - the first mystery - had she waited so long to get rid of the disfigurement? “Because I no longer have need of it” is all she would say.

Her murder takes place in a gloomy historic manor house in Dorset, which the surgeon has converted into an expensive private clinic where his clients can be operated on and recover. Dr. Chandler-Powell, the surgeon, was successful in reducing the scar on Rhoda Gradwyn's face. It was unfortunate - and bad for business - that she was strangled in her bed that very night. Sounds like a case for the local constabulary. You would think. But no. The Prime Minister gets involved and wants Dalgliesh to investigate.

As is usually the case in a P.D. James novel, the threads of the murder start in the past. And there is a lot of not-so-pleasant history with several members of the clinic and household. It's the typical Jamesian multiple red herrings to throw you off the scent. It's not all that surprising about who did it, really. But the way James gets to the solution is the joy in the book.

You have to read P.D. James the way she writes - it's never hurried, action packed, or even bodice-ripping thrilling. It's more psychological, introspective, and more subtle. It's a leisurely read; no frantic turning of the pages to get to the solution.

There is also a side story of Dalgliesh's love life with Emma Lavenham, the professor he met several novels back. They're planning their wedding when the murder occurs and poor Adam has to leave his lady love in the lurch to deal with florists, caterers, etc., plus a family crisis that he can't help her with. So, of course, he's torn about his duty to his job and his duty to his fiance. A side note: there is a tie-in with Jane Austen in this story. Initially, Emma's best friend Clara despised Dalgliesh. But they warm to each other, sort of. James describes the home of Clara and her partner Annie "where no one entered without - in Jane Austen's words - the sanguine expectation of happiness." And at the end after the wedding, Clara and Annie make note of the end of Emma and Mrs. Elton's comment, "Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business." Sounds like a pretty snarky thing to say about one's best friend, but they then remember how the novel ends. "But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union." At least Dalgliesh didn't have to make Mr. Knightley's sacrifice and move in with her father!

In the purview of P.D. James' work this is not one of the superior novels. However, an average James is better than many other mystery writers' best work. Check it out.

Twilight

I'm reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, the super sensational vampire romance novel for teens. I can understand why girls would love this book - a mysterious gorgeous boy for whom all the girls are beside themselves and a shy girl who's different, how and why the two connect, and the undercurrent of sexual tension between them. I realize that it's written for the young adult audience and not for a middle aged adult like me, therefore, I shouldn't judge too harshly. The writing is okay but there's not much there to keep me interested. It's too slow (like the movie, which is, uh, deliberately paced) and wordy. It takes a lot of patience to stick with it.

I do like the atmosphere Meyer creates - she knows how to write about the Pacific Northwest and its gothic elements (dark clouds, rain, fog, deep dark forests, a chill - i.e., creepy. Throw in a remote Italian castle and Ann Radcliffe would feel at home). I also like the lead characters, Bella and Edward. Particularly Bella - Meyer really understands her and her "otherness," and treats her sympathetically. She kept my interest throughout. Edward, the man/boy of mystery, is more difficult. He's uber-complex and introspective. Bella has a hard time figuring out what makes him tick - me, too. Sometimes he is too deep, especially for a teenage girl to comprehend. And that is the big problem for me. Edward is "17 years old"; however, he's existed 100 years. He may look like a teenager, but he's not - he has decades of world experience. Bella is mature and very smart but she is only 17 with a certain degree of innocence. He has all the experience that comes with age and using it on Bella. Plus he displays a lot of traits of a stalker - watches her while she sleeps, etc. Creeped me out a bit.

I wanted to like it because of my interest in vampire literature and film and that the story is based, sort of, on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. But Meyer is no Austen and the novel is too long.