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I love the tone of David’s
narration. It’s chatty, easy, conversational and SO easy to connect with.
Everything is immediate.
David’s ridiculous metaphors are
consistently awful and they inject regular humour into some serious drama and
action.
The love story between David and Megan
is always there, but it never takes over. It’s sweet, affectionate banter in
the background; an angst in the beginning; and a motivation to survive. So
adorable.
What a twist about Calamity at
the end of Calamity! I wasn’t
expecting that at all and I loved it.
Macleod Andrews who reads this
series is the perfect audiobook narrator. He gets David brilliantly and I love
the pep and optimism that’s always there. He’s so brilliant that I would
deliberately seek out more audiobooks read by him.
What should I read next in my
adventures through Brandon Sanderson’s world? I’m thinking Warbreaker…
As part of the Grand Tour for Natasha Farrant's brilliant Pride and Prejudice retelling, Lydia, Natasha Farrant is telling us all about fashion in Austen's time.
I have on loan, for the purpose of promoting LYDIA,
an exquisite bonnet of soft gold straw, trimmed with green ostrich feathers,
artificial berries and three different kinds of ribbons. Small crowned and wide peaked, the glow of
the straw gives a soft sheen to my skin. The weight of the thing makes me stand a
little straighter. The bow beneath my
chin has a feminine coyness, the feathers lend glamour, the fruit a touch of
playfulness. Hidden several miles behind
the brim, I feel at once demure and flirtatious, empowered and restrained. To
wear an (imitation) Regency bonnet raises complicated emotions. Rather like
slipping on a pair of impossibly high heels or having a manicure or wearing a
push-up bra, it changes both the way you feel about yourself and the way you
behave.
This passage about the
trimming of hats, from one of Austen’s letters to her sister Cassandra, gives
us a clue as to her thoughts on all this:
“Flowers are very much
worn, and Fruit is still more the thing.Eliz. Has a bunch of Strawberries, and I have seen Grapes, Cherries,
Plumbs and Apricots – There are likewise Almonds & raisins, French plumbs
and Tamarinds at the Grocers, but I have never seen any of them in hats (-) I
cannot help thinking that it is more natural to have flowers grow out of the
head than fruit.”
From this and other
letters, it’s clear that she found the world of high fashion absurd, but we
know also that she enjoyed it.Her
letters are full of references to stockings she has bought, caps she has
trimmed, and her determination to keep up with the latest trends (for example,
in the wearing of long sleeves for dinner).Austen uses this duality – embracing fashion, while remaining conscious
of its absurdities – to inform us about her characters. As a general rule,
while it is entirely right for a person to be well turned out, an over-interest
in fashion soon becomes a shorthand for ridicule. We know, for example, that
Lizzy Bennet spends longer than usual getting ready for the Netherfield ball,
that Jane Fairfax is elegant, that Fanny Price dresses with modesty and correct
propriety, but are told little else about their dress.Mrs
Elton in Emma, on the other hand,
speaks at length of her “horror of being overtrimmed”.Isabella Morland longs for a “coquelicot
ribboned” hat. The first thing Mrs Bennet does with visitors from out of town
in make them tell her all about the latest fashions.Poor Lydia is forever trimming bonnets. Excessive
interest in fashion, it is implied, is always a hallmark for intellectual
inferiority.
If
Austen were alive today, I imagine she would be investing in timeless classical
pieces in the House of Fraser sales, with good brogues and a well-cut coat,
personalised with cleverly tied scarves and discreet jewellery. She would use own brand face creams and maybe
a little mascara and expensive perfume on special occasions, and she would always
be appropriately dressed. I would be very nervous to approach her unless I too
were dressed exactly right: nothing pulled un-ironed out of the basket, no uncombed
hair or chipped nail varnish or old T-shirt.
No frumpiness, but no ostentation either. Jeans, maybe, but not ripped, and definitely
with a jacket, and squeaky clean trainers.
It
is not a coincidence that my Lydia and indeed her female nemesis, Theo de
Fombelle, are obsessed with clothes. Lydia’s obsession is an indication, as in
Austen’s novels, of her frivolous nature, though also of her sense of fun and
experimentation. Theo’s is more complicated: she has understood the obsession
of her era with fashion, and plans to use it to her advantage. In both cases,
fashion, as Austen understood so well, is a highly charged thing – frivolous
and fun, but also deeply revealing of character.
Thank you so much, Natasha! You can read my review of the fantastic 'Lydia' right here and make sure to check out the rest of the Grand Tour!
A
spirited, witty and fresh reimagining of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Lydia is the youngest Bennet sister and
she's sick of country life – instead of sewing and reading, she longs for
adventure. When a red-coated garrison arrives in Merryton, Lydia’s life turns
upside down. As she falls for dashing Wickham, she’s swept into a whirlwind
social circle and deposited in a seaside town, Brighton. Sea-bathing,
promenades and scandal await – and a pair of intriguing twins. Can Lydia find
out what she really wants – and can she get it?
I’ve had a bit of a Pride and Prejudice year with my first
re-read since I was 17 and Curtis Sittenfeld’s brilliant Eligible, and Lydia was
the perfect addition.
Lydia is a character that I've never
fully got on board with, either in adaptations, the book itself or the many
re-tellings and re-imaginings I've read over the years, until Lydia. I finally got her. She stopped being
the annoying younger Bennet sister who caused trouble and put her sisters’
futures into jeopardy and become someone unjustly disregarded by everyone as
silly and left out by her older sisters. Lydia became likeable and sympathetic
and it’s made me want to re-read Pride
and Prejudice again with that new perspective.
As Lydia wrote of her adventures
and related the parts of Jane and Lizzie’s stories that I’m so familiar with I got
little buzzes of happiness, but I was eventually overcome with curiosity as to
how this new dynamic to Lydia’s story would incorporate with what I knew. I loved
seeing Brighton – a city I’m very familiar with – come to life in the late 18th
century and the reflections of what was happening back in Longbourn, but it was
even nicer to see Lydia grow and change during her time by the sea. I really
loved the spin that was put on that time that we never really saw in the
original novel.
Natasha Farrant took a few takes
on Austen that we’d actually discussed in the past and made them strong
features of the novel which I really liked. Mrs Bennet’s hysteric need to marry
her daughters was out of fear of them ending up destitute – she’s not entirely
silly; Wickham’s motives, though wrong, were understandable; and the fact that
marriage really was all about money in Austen’s time – Jane and Lizzie were
incredibly lucky to love the rich men they married.
But most of all, I loved that
Lydia’s ending felt so different to P&P – it felt worthy of the character I
fell in love with during this novel. Marrying Wickham almost seemed like a
punishment for her actions in Austen’s book, something that would inevitably
end in unhappiness, but Lydia got her happy ending in Lydia which was really lovely to see. I finished this book with a
great big smile on my face and you really can’t ask for more than that.
Lydia
is a fresh,
affectionate and respectful take on Pride
and Prejudice and really manages to keep Austen’s original at its heart.
Originally published in 1871-2 by William Blackwood
and Sons
My edition: the ridiculously pretty Penguin
Clothbound Classic, though I did listen to around a third of the novel on audio
WHEN
I Discovered This Classic
Middlemarch
is, once again,
a novel that I don’t remember not knowing about. It’s a title banded around as
the epitome of the sprawling Victorian novel, the hugely intimidating classic
that you’ll never read and one of the most important books in English
literature.
WHY
I Chose to Read It
I came across Bex from Ninja Book
Swap/An Armchair by the Sea announcing on Twitter that she would be hosting a
6-week Middlemarch readalong (you can
look back on our thoughts with #EliotAlong) and I spontaneously decided to join
in! I knew it would be unlikely I would get around to reading it on my own so I
ordered a copy of the book and got ready to join in!
WHAT
Makes It a Classic
Middlemarch
is often
regarded to be one of the finest pieces of English literature and was a
favourite of Virginia Woolf’s who in 1919 said it was “one of the few English
novels written for grown-up people”. It’s praised for its intelligence,
characters, themes and social awareness.
WHAT
I Thought of This Classic
Middlemarch
is a long,
involved and complicated novel, or it feels like it at first. There are a lot
of characters to meet and learning how they are connected and the complex
relationships between the inhabitants of Middlemarch is daunting, but once you’re
in, you’re in.
Though we spend time with a lot
of characters over the course of the novel, we mostly focus on Dorothea (naïve,
young, beautiful), Rosamund (rich, beautiful and shallow), Mr Causabon (a mean,
selfish Reverend), Fred Vincy (charming, fumbling and a gambler) Ladislaw
(intelligent, romantic and idealistic) and Lydgate (a doctor with revolutionary
ideas).
Over the course of the novel we
see them question, succeed, fail, love, hate, marry and grieve. Middlemarch is definitely the broadest
look at rural Victorian life I've ever read and it was fascinating to see the scope
extend beyond the upper echelons of society into the middle and lower classes
across all professions, especially looking at the women in those situations.
George Eliot was an early
feminist and it’s obvious from the get go. Dorothea and Rosamund are incredibly
complex characters, and honest ones too. Neither woman is always likable,
always admirable or always hated which is a common pitfall in the novels of
this period, in my opinion. Marriage is explored extensively and it was so good
to finally see beyond the proposal of marriages built on superficial
appreciations and chaperoned meetings when you’re trying to impress. I think
the only other time I've come across this is in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Watching the male characters,
particularly Causabon and Lydgate, fully realise that their wives are people
with opinions, feelings and ideas is a wonderful thing, but also a sad one.
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But Eliot didn’t just delve into
the psyches of the female characters, she let us truly get to know the men too.
Causabon is basically an arse and I hated him – selfish, manipulative,
immovable – I pitied Dorothea so very much. The way the men interacted with
women once they truly knew them was super interesting, especially when faced
with a woman being right and the man being wrong. The dynamics between the
sexes in Middlemarch is something
that could be discussed for weeks and still only scratch the surface. But what I
loved most about the male characters was as aspect of Will Ladislaw’s tale: he didn’t
know what he wanted to do with his life. It’s reassuring to know that feeling
isn’t a new one. Too often in the Victorian novels I’ve read so there’s no
discussion about career aspirations, what the men want from their lives (other
than the heroine) and I really enjoyed watching that aspect of Will’s story
unfold.
The struggle of finding someone
to happily spend your life with also feels like a modern one, but once again,
Eliot brought the 1830s in to my world and the world of my family and friends
with the universal struggles of marriage, love and friendship. It was almost
humbling to see how little people have changed in nearly 200 years and, quite
frankly, it made me rather grateful that I'm a woman in 2016 rather than 1830.
After over 800 pages, I felt I knew
these characters very, very well. Some I grew to hate and some I grew to love,
but I won’t be forgetting any of them any time soon. This novel is daunting, it’s
complicated and some bits are a tad dry, but it is so worth a read. I thoroughly
enjoyed Middlemarch and I'm beyond
glad I got to experience it.
WILL
It Stay a Classic
100%. Only last year it was voted
by critics and scholars as number one in the BBC’s poll of ‘The 100 Greatest British Novels’!
WHO
I’d Recommend it To
- Fans of Elizabeth Gaskell,
particularly North and South.
- If you’re interested in what
happens after the proposal and wedding in 19th century classics.
- People who like the idea of
Dickens and his books, but don’t actually
like them.
The completely marvelous YA Shot team have set up an epic blog tour to celebrate the epic event taking place in October. It's run and led by authors, pairing schools and libraries for free author events. It's incredible. As part of the tour I was lucky enough to get to do a Q&A with the brilliantly lovely Harriet Reuter Hapgood, author of The Square Root of Summer'.
1. Gottie’s grief over Grey is intense and so palpable. Did you make yourself upset at any point during writing the novel?
Sometimes. One of the very first scenes I wrote was Gottie in the hospital after Grey’s stroke, him dying. I had no idea then what exactly I was writing, and where that would slot in as a puzzle piece. And that was written instinctively, and pretty much from life – my grandmother had a huge stroke a few years ago, and hospitals are just the worst. I was also going through some other pretty tough life stuff for a couple of years too, which I don’t talk about because it involves other people’s stories and privacy, but if you know me you can read between the lines of the book and see why the grief is so intense. And I definitely channelled all the bad and poured it into the page and got myself in a tizz a lot. Of course, other times I made myself upset because writing is hard! I definitely remember crying over the book not because of an emotional scene, but because the stupid words weren’t working!
2. The Square Root of Summer is rather full on with the physics. Are you a physics whizz or did you get confused as well? I stopped studying maths and physics at GCSE – and I’m a summer baby, so I was 15. And started writing the book 16 years later, so...not a physics whizz, no. I didn’t find it remotely confusing, though, and I’m FASCINATED by people saying it is! Maths is really just a language. Think of the numbers and mathematics as the grammar and punctuation, and the physics theories as the literature. It’s just stories – black holes, wormholes, time travel, quantum… Once you let go of trying to solve it all, it becomes easier – like poetry. You don’t have to know the answer. Honestly, if I can understand it – and I literally have a degree in Dawson’s Creek, which tells you where I’m at brain-wise – anyone can. 3. Tell me a little bit about your debut year. Has it been as you expected? Anything unexpected or surprising? Oh, man. I had zero expectations, I knew nothing. There's a ton online about how to write a book, there's no preparation for "how to be an author, publicly". And it has been intense! I spent years happily writing this book ALONE in my CAVE and working as a sub-editor on magazines, which is the journalist equivalent of being in a cave, then suddenly I was in a spotlight! I went on two US book tours and one UK one, so in a very short timespan I learned how to read from my book in front of an audience without throwing up… Not to wear a short skirt if the stage is raised… How to sign my very long name quite quickly… It’s all been wonderful and whirlwindy and wild. The most unexpected moment was climbing on top of the Flatiron Building in New York, barefoot, while slightly tipsy with my editor… But the best part is getting super-intense long emails from readers, it's just pure joy. 4. What’s your favourite read of 2016 so far? The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, The Serpent King by Jeff Zenter, and Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky. I have three favourites and I would save them all from a fire.
5. Can you tell me anything about book two? Um… It’s currently untitled and I’m on a last-ditch draft to get it to my agent by the end of September. It’s another contemporary-ish standalone YA, this one a dual POV about three friends in their final year of high school in an idyllic California small town – think a west coast Stars Hollow meets Buffy. And plays with my favourite YA/teen TV tropes: boys next door, love triangles, core friendship groups, ridiculous whimsy. The main romance is between two girls, and it’s really about self-perception and destiny vs self-determination. There’s magic, gelato, a cat (of course), ghosts, memories, kissing, the ocean, grimoires, a diner – and everything is not as it seems…
6. If you don’t mind, I’d love to see a snap of your TBR! I wish I could show you! All my books – including TBR! – are at my parents’ house because I live in a damp hovel in Brighton undergoing major renovations. My writing space is a folding garden table! And I don’t read YA while I’m writing YA, so… Some books on my TBR though are: 'The Graces' by Laure Eve, 'Super Awkward' by Beth Garrod, 'The First Time She Drowned' by Kerry Kletter, 'Girl In Pieces' by Kathleen Glasgow, and 'Girls in the Moon' by Janet McNally. Lots of YA, lots of debuts, lots of female writers.
