Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.
Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.
Today’s teaser comes from The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor.
“No, no, Master. A virtuous mind allied to a cultivated understanding must ever—” (pg. 62)
Mansfield Park from The Complete Works of Jane Austen
By Jane Austen
Douglas Editions
ISBN: 2940000816981
3.5
I knew going in that Mansfield Park was not one of Austen’s most loved works but I had high hopes. I’d yet to run into a story I didn’t like so why would this one be different? Oh, what a question to be answered. I struggled with Mansfield Park. I never thought of quitting but when the general pattern I’m so happy to find in her books didn’t appear but a group of hateful characters did; it made me wonder what I was reading. There was no one for me to become attached to. No love story to speak of. Scandal, debauchery, and laziness were in abundance though.
Fanny Price is all of 10 years-old when she’s packed off to live with her aunt, Lady Bertram, at Mansfield Park. A timid creature, Fanny does her best to fade into the background. Having been told since her arrival by her other aunt, Mrs. Norris, she knows she’s not much to look at, nor should she ever be ungrateful for all her aunt and uncle have done for her. When the Crawford’s, a brother and sister duo of trouble, come to stay at the nearby parsonage, Fanny’s cultivated quiet life changes drastically.
There is a lot of Jane Austen here to like — it’s witty, humorous, there’s sharp dialogue, and societal mockery. There’s also a boatload of dislikable characters. For instance, Mrs. Norris. She’s like the Mrs. Danvers of the Austen universe. She’s mean, caustic, and cheap. Oh so cheap. While she never tries to get Fanny to off herself, she does all she can to make sure Fanny knows she’s no Bertram either and is certainly no help to her self-esteem. I did find her amusing in a way though especially when she’s lifting things like jam and thread from others for her own personal use. Lady Bertram is so lazy it’s a wonder she can breathe on her own. She’s incapable of making any decisions and is forever asking her husband or sons if she likes something. How can you not know if you like something? Tom, Maria, and Julia Bertram are so self-centered they didn’t even register with me — even when scandal overtakes them. Edmund is interesting, being the only one willing to speak his conscience, but he’s also annoying especially when he gets blind-sighted by Miss Crawford. And now we come to the Crawford’s. They do add life to the story and their scheming of course makes you love to hate them, but yes, there’s a but. Because I saw it (I’m not going to tell you what it is.) coming I honestly wanted it to be over knowing good ol’ stout Fanny wouldn’t fall for it.
This has me wondering about another Austen book, Emma. I never liked that character either and never finished the book. I’m willing to give it a go but it might be a long minute before I get to it. Lady Susan is next on my Austen tome list. I enjoy epistolary novels so my hopes are once again high.
In time, I may go back to this one for a re-read. I might feel differently about it a second time.
Becoming Marie Antoinette
By Juliet Grey
Ballantine Books
ISBN: 9780345523860
4 stars
Marie Antoinette has long been a favorite character of mine in historical fiction. The French court, the elaborate pomp and circumstance, and then there is the setting — Versailles. In Becoming Marie Antoinette, Grey takes us past the court window dressings introducing us to a young girl struggling to fit in and be someone much more French than her Austrian roots allow.
The Austrian court is a quiet refuge for a young Marie Antonia, the youngest daughter of the empress. She has a lot of freedom and never having been much of a scholar, she does her best to avoid every lesson possible. When she’s told she will be marrying the Dauphin of France, Louis Auguste, she spends her days dreaming of marriage and children. However, she fails to understand her future marriage is more than a simple arrangement; it will be the culmination of a treaty between the Austrian empress and the French king. Her days spent dreaming in the garden are over. Her mother, knowing she needs to impress not only the French ambassador but eventually the French king, his court, and the country’s people, Marie Antonia’s education begins again with a decided slant towards making her not just appear French but to be French.
Understanding for the first time the gravity of her marriage, Marie Antonia takes everything seriously from learning to endure French hair and clothing to performing the Versailles glide — a way of walking through the halls of the palace — perfectly. When her wedding plans are finally announced, the young daydreamer has been transformed into a young woman who may not entirely understand her new role, but is willing to try. Anxious to finally meet her husband, she does her best to make a good impression on everyone she meets during her journey. When she finally arrives, more changes await her, the least of which is being stripped of everything Austrian to be replaced completely with French versions including her name. She submits; Marie Antonia becomes Marie Antoinette.
Determined to be nothing if not loved, Marie Antoinette makes it her duty to impress: her husband, the king, and the court. Unfortunately, not everyone finds her alluring and especially not her new husband. A quiet man of few words, she can’t figure out how to get through to him and the rumors of a virginal marriage bed begin to haunt her. With no place to find solace in a court constantly full of gossipy, curious courtiers, she attempts to understand the man who is her husband.
What’s so interesting about this particular story is that we meet a young Marie Antoinette who has no head for academics but is able to make just about everyone love her. She’s fun and while she knows her freedom won’t last, she’s resigned to making the best of it. While the Marie Antoinette we meet isn’t the refined and glamorous woman of most historical fiction, she’s certainly a lovable character and most of that is due to her age. She’s young, incredibly young even for her age. And while you may know what’s coming her way, she seems blissful at least to a certain point. It’s when she comes to understand the difficulties that lay ahead for her, you begin to not only like her but feel for her. A foreign archduchess, she’s not looked upon kindly and realizes fast there are few she can trust in her new home.
The relationship with Louis has its poignant moments and frankly some embarrassing ones as well. But you also see two young adults attempting to figure out what’s expected of them and how they plan to live up to those expectations. Finding they love each other along the way lends sweetness to a story that can easily be trounced on by an overbearing French court. There are a few places in the story when I did wish for less information as Grey has obviously done her research but overall those moments don’t cause harm. In many ways this is a coming of age story, but it’s also full of some interesting characters you don’t want to let go of even at the end which is good because Becoming Marie Antoinette is the first in a planned trilogy.
In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for the Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.
Reign of Madness
By Lynn Cullen
Putnam Adult
ISBN: 9780399157097
4 stars
Juana of Castile is a young girl at the Spanish court secure in the fact she will never inherit the crown and also secure in her parent’s marriage and love for one another. When her world view is suddenly shattered, her romantic ideals disappear — especially those of marriage and her parent’s marriage specifically — and it leaves her with a more pragmatic view of life. She now understands that love and marriage are not one in the same and she beings to see all the more clearly where her life will lead and what it will be like. When Juana’s marriage to Philip I, the Duke of Burgundy, is announced she makes her way to a foreign country with little preparation and an even smaller hope of finding happiness in her marriage and maybe even in her life.
Juana and Philip’s first meeting is odd and while it’s not the most reassuring start, it’s not as bad as Juana imagined. The first few years of their marriage are full of lust, if not necessarily love, and the two young and naive rulers stumble toward a future she never imagined — the crown of Spain. With every relationship in her life eroding — her mother’s silence, her husband’s strange behavior, and courtiers deserting her — Juana struggles to control her jealous feelings for her husband as well as awful thoughts toward a mother who has grown cold. Her children become her only happiness and Philip becomes tortuous holding her at arm’s length, taunting her, playing with her emotions, and doing all he can to make Juana doubt herself.
Philip’s plans to steal the Spanish crown become clear to Juana all too late. When she finally beings to fathom his cruelness, both physically and mentally, her reaction is long overdue. Unfortunately, he has convinced too many of her perceived incompetence and Juana can do nothing to dispel the rumors or fight back. Everyone now sees her as a lovesick, heartbroken, and mad woman incapable of caring for herself and certainly not the Spanish empire.
Juana does not start out as a particularly sympathetic character. She’s dropped, at a young age, all the pretentions of happiness knowing with clarity that her life is not truly her own. It’s because of this attitude you expect her to see Philip for what he is — a childish man who believes he can take all he wants without consequences. His attitude and cruelty toward her are evident rather early on in the marriage but she becomes wrapped up in trying to keep Philip happy that she overlooks clear warnings from family and friends.
What I found most astonishing was her own inability to use the strong women present in her life, preferring to placate her husband to keep his rather unpredictable behavior on an even keel. I wanted to shake her. I wanted her to open her eyes and take control of her life in some way.
Having read another of Cullen’s book, The Creation of Eve, I knew to expect interesting female characters. Even if in this case that female character wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. But this may be a case of me trying to apply my modern view of things to a historically based story. Juana is a smart person but sadly understands what’s happening in her life all too late to change anything. You do feel for her and even at times when I was frustrated with how poorly she was dealing with her husband, I couldn’t walk away. I needed to know how her story would end and what she would do.
Cullen deftly mixes fact and fiction creating a portrait of a woman marked as mad but with a husband who fits the description better. It’s told very effectively, eliciting strong emotions and in the process telling a wonderful story.
In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.
Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.
I’m starting Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey today. Here’s your peek inside:
“The footmen inside the palace stood at attention, never lowering their gaze to acknowledge us. Their gold and black livery nearly shimmered in the highly polished parquet.” (pg. 16)
Historical fiction makes up a good portion of my reading lists (TBR and read) and I’ve been thinking about something lately — when I’m reading historical fiction, do I have a truth test? Do I want it to be historically accurate or am I all right with some vague historical descriptions and or the lives of real individuals trifled with? In answer to that last part of the question, the answer is obviously yes or I wouldn’t be reading any historical fiction at all.
While I’m familiar with general facts about history (I’m not a history buff but I would like to think I could pass an 8th grade history test, hopefully… J), one of the major reasons I read this genre is my interest in time periods I don’t know anything about. Don’t worry, I’m not implying I get my historical facts from fiction; it’s the people and places driving a story I find interesting. Usually after finishing a book I’ll look up all the people, places, and time period, mostly to put a face to a person and place. I’ve never felt betrayed on finding out an author took liberties with his/her characters’ lives. I’m reading fiction after all! Standards have to be set low on the historical bar when that’s the case.
For some, and I would imagine history buffs mostly, I can see this genre being a problem. In some ways, I think my interest in historical fiction fills a craving of mine to learn about different places and times. I hungrily devour facts after finishing a story but prior to reading many books, I don’t think I would have researched information about the time, not to say my historical fiction reading drives my historical interests, but sometimes I do find I have a curiosity about certain subjects after reading about a time period I’m unfamiliar with. I may not have learned a load of facts from the actual reading but after I do.
I also think this drives my non-fiction reading. Many non-fiction books get added to my list thanks to a historical fiction read and some research after.
Thoughts on this: Do you prefer your historical fiction to be accurate or are you OK with minor changes for the sake of fiction/entertainment?
Happy Sunday. I’m off to, well, let’s face it, to stay in the air conditioning all day. I think it’s supposed to be another three digit degree day here…
Little Women
By Louisa May Alcott
Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.
ISBN: 0-448-06019-1
I’m not going to call this a review because it’s not. If you want to read more about the book, google it. I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about what I thought of it on this go around instead.
When I picked this up, I was in a slight reading slump and thought a beloved book from my childhood that I’ve always considered a comfort read would pull me out of it. By page 40, I was so annoyed with everyone — Meg for bemoaning being poor, Jo for her hyper personality, Beth for all her goodness could only talk about being even better, Amy took me to the heights of annoyance over wanting to be so prim, proper and rich, and even dear Marmee started to rankle. They were too perfect. They were too moral. Everything was a lesson. Then something changed. It was that dear old scene where Beth befriends Mr. Laurence and when the little piano arrives, she boldly walks next door to thank him properly for the joy he’s brought her. The two become a pair content in a friendship that comes of music and Beth’s simple nature. My annoyances dropped away and once more I felt at home. It took me a minute though and even when I thought about dropping it, I couldn’t. I didn’t want to leave the story on a bad note.
Sometimes when re-reading a story that is so loved, there creeps in the need to change it or to imagine it with different endings. I’ve heard others talk about wanting Jo and Laurie to get together and while I can see that as a possible ending, and at one point in my life I felt it should have been that way, I found this time that I wanted Jo and the Professor to be together instead. Yes, Jo and Laurie fit together perfectly but they are so alike that it wouldn’t feel satisfying to me now. Somehow just like Marmee said! Jo finds someone who appreciates her outbursts and willingness to learn by throwing herself so fully into things that she forgets about the world around her and there’s something lovely in that simple ending for her. She finds not only love but a partner.
While I still found Jo to be my favorite, Meg and Amy left me wanting this time. They were still, I don’t know how to put this, but still too preoccupied with the thoughts of others. Amy does redeem herself but she felt small and slightly inconsequential. Her romance with Laurie isn’t so much of a romance as a settling for me and maybe that’s why years ago I felt cheated by it and wanted Laurie to be with Jo. Meg has a way of wrapping herself up so tightly in small things that she forgets there are others in her life, and when this happens in her marriage, I didn’t feel for her. It was a normal reaction and the lesson from Marmee felt more like preaching and I sort of glossed over it. Marriage is tough and Meg needed to find that out. Yes, Marmee let her but it didn’t stop any discussion of the lesson learned.
Then there is the moral; make that morals. There’s a lesson to be learned by one and all every day, rich or poor. I felt preached to in the end by people better than me and that frustrated me. Not because I think I’m a bad person, I think the contrary actually, but this time it weighed heavily. It was probably my mood considering how busy life has been during the last few weeks but I was looking for comfort and I got a sermon. I don’t remember it being this way on other reads but somewhere along the way I saw it all differently. And I’m grateful for that. I appreciate being able to take a book I’ve read and loved, re-examine it and look at it from a new perspective. In some ways it became a more satisfying read this time even if I didn’t enjoy it as much. I still adore this story and nothing in the world will change that but it’s interesting to see how my current life and experiences changes my reading and memories.
Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV
By Karleen Koen
Crown Publishers
ISBN: 978030771657-6
4 stars
I’ve always had a soft spot for the antics of the French court even more so than the English courts and I’m the type of person who can’t turn down a story about the Tudors. In books revolving around the monarchy, whether French or English, one can’t have a story without a mistress and let’s all agree that’s what makes the story. Isn’t that why these books are so much fun? Oh, it is and Koen doesn’t disappoint.
Cardinal Mazarin, the French prime minister, is dead and Louis XIV, only twenty-two years-old, is now king of France and a king with power. That power is not yet firmly grasped but he’s intent on learning to yield it fully. Unaware of many of the financial arrangements his mother and the Cardinal made while ruling in his stead, he’s in for a surprise when he finally takes it upon himself to investigate. Unsure of his financial minister’s monetary affairs and how mingled they are with the crown’s accounts, he has suspicions and employs a faithful counselor to help him sort through the courtly promises and financial advice being offered.
To add another distraction, Louis has fallen in love with his brother Philippe’s wife, Princess Henriette, a woman captivating not only the king but the entire French court. A man not used to being denied, Louis attempts to make Henriette his mistress against the wishes of not only his brother but also his mother who believes it will be his downfall. Married to a woman he greatly admires for her breeding and royal pedigree, unfortunately, he doesn’t truly love her and is looking for a distraction she can’t provide. He knows it’s the idea of passion and surprise that comes from his illicit affair with Henriette but Louis can’t help himself. To calm the court, Henriette suggests he flirt with one of her maids; a shy but very pretty young woman named Louise. Then something happens he didn’t expect — Louis finds he might have fallen in love.
Before Versailles started slowly for but it was almost as if it was waiting for Louis to find his footing as king and once he found his confidence, so did the story. While the affair between Louis and Henriette is more intense, the affair with Louise is completely the opposite but in a way more satisfying. All the court intrigue requirements needed for a story like this are met and then some. Oddly, the financial scandal is also quite good, adding a harder edge to what is mostly a love story. It’s a nice contrast for Louis as he grows into his role as a king and what he’s dealing with on the political level makes you see why he craves love in the quieter parts of his life. I was happy to see the political elements here. In stories about kings and mistresses it sometimes gets pushed to the side and becomes background noise. Here that doesn’t happen and it’s refreshing. There is a small side story involving Louise that feels slightly out of place but it’s the only stumble in an otherwise entertaining book.
I read a lot of historical fiction and I love when authors find a way to make well-known figures interesting and intense characters that allow you to imagine another life for that person. Koen does that with Louis XIV. I finished wanting to know more about the king that would build the palace of Versailles. That can be difficult to accomplish sometimes.
In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.
Just Book Reading 