Recent reading
Apr. 3rd, 2023 06:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeThe Adventures of Rob Roy by James Grant (1873). Another Jacobite novel found while browsing 'latest ebooks' at Gutenberg. Actually this is more of a dramatised children's history book; it's a retelling of the life and adventures of Rob Roy, purportedly all drawn from real history and sometimes quoting at some length from history books. James Grant was another one of those prolific nineteenth-century historical adventure novel writers, but he was also an accomplished historian; I have my doubts about the reliability of this book's history—it's very much the romanticised Victorian view of the Highlands, complete with multiple Ossian quotes and references—but I did appreciate the attention Grant pays to the details of material culture, and the complicated political wrangling that forms much of the book's background is entertaining. The book follows Rob Roy through various fights, cattle raids, political negotiations, duels and other miscellaneous adventures; the Jacobite aspect is an important part of things but not really central. There's not much of a plot or an attempt at complex character development, but the actual writing is engaging in that fun-adventure-novel way, and there are some nice scenery descriptions! Altogether not one of the more brilliant Jacobite novels, but a fun read.
Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes (1861). I really liked Tom Brown's School Days when I read it a while ago, so I decided to check out the sequel and see how Hughes handled the transition from school story to college story! Actually this is only about half, or maybe two-thirds, a college story. The early part of the book follows Tom's first year at St Ambrose's College, Oxford in some detail: he meets all the different types of undergraduates (the morally dissolute 'fast' ones, the snobbish aristocratic ones, the rowing-obsessed ones, the incipient Oxford Movement high-church ones, the few who actually care about their studies, etc.), goes to lots of wild parties, joins the rowing crew and enjoys a thrilling and dramatic Bumps, gets into a 'town and gown' fight between a gang of undergraduates and one of locals, gets into an ill-advised affair with a barmaid, and becomes firm friends with Hardy, whom the college in general looks down upon because he is a servitor (a poor undergraduate who has his fees waived in return for working as a college servant) but who is nevertheless a Gentleman and worth far more in character than many of those aristocratic snobs. (Hughes's writing is really a lesson in class snobbery vs. money snobbery). All good fun! Then the action moves to a new group of characters in a country village, which it soon becomes clear is going to furnish Tom, Hardy, and the worthy barmaid with more socially-acceptable love interests, and this plot gradually takes over the college story until Tom's actually getting his degree is skipped over so quickly you'd be forgiven for missing it. The romance plot gets a bit tedious, but Hughes's writing style is so much fun throughout that I did like the book in both its college and country settings. I especially liked Katie, Tom's cousin and Hardy's love interest; she's a thoroughly sensible as well as a worthy young lady, and her cousinly friendship with Tom is lovely. There's also some interesting political stuff in the second half. Tom, responding to the sufferings of a young local labourer at the hands of landowners and employers, dives into politics and becomes a Radical; Hughes's politics as expressed in his narratorial voice combine a very much old-fashioned 'order of society' conservatism (I had called him an old-school Tory, but looking him up now I see he was actually a Liberal) with real compassion and a sense of justice and indignation at abuses of power by the upper classes (well, some of the time; on the other hand he is full of social prejudices and uncomplicatedly pro-empire), and while Tom mellows out by the end of the book he is allowed to remain at least somewhat Radical. Altogether a lot to enjoy in this book—history, politics, characters and most of all the wonderful chatty-Victorian narration style.
And I re-read If Fate Should Reverse Our Positions and its alternate ending A Great Service and a Bitter Grief byluzula, an excellent pair of Flight of the Heron fics which explore the development of Keith and Ewen's relationship in an alternate history where Fate does indeed reverse their positions and the Jacobite '45 succeeds. Really, really good stuff; the historical research and detail is truly worthy of the canon, and the alternate version of the Ewen/Keith relationship is beautifully developed in both branching timelines (one sad ending, one fix-it; the sad ending is really beautiful, but the fix-it is not only satisfyingly happy but even more historically and politically interesting).
Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes (1861). I really liked Tom Brown's School Days when I read it a while ago, so I decided to check out the sequel and see how Hughes handled the transition from school story to college story! Actually this is only about half, or maybe two-thirds, a college story. The early part of the book follows Tom's first year at St Ambrose's College, Oxford in some detail: he meets all the different types of undergraduates (the morally dissolute 'fast' ones, the snobbish aristocratic ones, the rowing-obsessed ones, the incipient Oxford Movement high-church ones, the few who actually care about their studies, etc.), goes to lots of wild parties, joins the rowing crew and enjoys a thrilling and dramatic Bumps, gets into a 'town and gown' fight between a gang of undergraduates and one of locals, gets into an ill-advised affair with a barmaid, and becomes firm friends with Hardy, whom the college in general looks down upon because he is a servitor (a poor undergraduate who has his fees waived in return for working as a college servant) but who is nevertheless a Gentleman and worth far more in character than many of those aristocratic snobs. (Hughes's writing is really a lesson in class snobbery vs. money snobbery). All good fun! Then the action moves to a new group of characters in a country village, which it soon becomes clear is going to furnish Tom, Hardy, and the worthy barmaid with more socially-acceptable love interests, and this plot gradually takes over the college story until Tom's actually getting his degree is skipped over so quickly you'd be forgiven for missing it. The romance plot gets a bit tedious, but Hughes's writing style is so much fun throughout that I did like the book in both its college and country settings. I especially liked Katie, Tom's cousin and Hardy's love interest; she's a thoroughly sensible as well as a worthy young lady, and her cousinly friendship with Tom is lovely. There's also some interesting political stuff in the second half. Tom, responding to the sufferings of a young local labourer at the hands of landowners and employers, dives into politics and becomes a Radical; Hughes's politics as expressed in his narratorial voice combine a very much old-fashioned 'order of society' conservatism (I had called him an old-school Tory, but looking him up now I see he was actually a Liberal) with real compassion and a sense of justice and indignation at abuses of power by the upper classes (well, some of the time; on the other hand he is full of social prejudices and uncomplicatedly pro-empire), and while Tom mellows out by the end of the book he is allowed to remain at least somewhat Radical. Altogether a lot to enjoy in this book—history, politics, characters and most of all the wonderful chatty-Victorian narration style.
And I re-read If Fate Should Reverse Our Positions and its alternate ending A Great Service and a Bitter Grief by
luzula, an excellent pair of Flight of the Heron fics which explore the development of Keith and Ewen's relationship in an alternate history where Fate does indeed reverse their positions and the Jacobite '45 succeeds. Really, really good stuff; the historical research and detail is truly worthy of the canon, and the alternate version of the Ewen/Keith relationship is beautifully developed in both branching timelines (one sad ending, one fix-it; the sad ending is really beautiful, but the fix-it is not only satisfyingly happy but even more historically and politically interesting).
