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The Gleam in the North by D. K. Broster
Aug. 9th, 2020 04:46 pmAll right, here we go.
The Gleam in the North (1927) is D. K. Broster's eighth novel, and it is a sequel to The Flight of the Heron. Now, before I read this one I was somewhat questioning the choice of FotH as a book for which to write a sequel—the story is so well-structured and contained in itself, and of course killing off one of the main characters at the end means it's not really possible to add anything to it. If I was choosing one of Broster's first seven books to write a sequel to I'd go with Sir Isumbras at the Ford, or perhaps 'Mr Rowl', both of which have fairly open endings with all the main characters still alive. I think I understand rather better now why Broster chose FotH instead—but I still don't really agree with the choice.
The action opens in 1752, more than six years since the ending of FotH. Ewen Cameron is back at Ardroy, with Alison and their two young sons, one of whom has a minor adventure and ends up requiring medical treatment. Ewen finds a doctor for him—but it's Archibald Cameron, who, still under an attainder, is back in Scotland secretly on Jacobite business. Appearing at Ardroy is therefore a risk for Archie, and one which, unfortunately, doesn't pay off. Archie escapes from the resulting redcoat raid, but Ewen is captured on suspicion of sheltering him and imprisoned at Fort William. From there... things go downhill, and, well, the rest is history.
The plot is based much more closely around specific historical events than Flight of the Heron—there, while the '45 is portrayed in brilliant historical detail, it's the setting for a fictional plot, but here, particularly later on, the main details of the plot simply are what historically happened to Dr Archibald Cameron in the first half of 1753. The early part of the plot focusses on Ewen's various adventures following his capture and escape—meeting a priest and having some thoughts on religion, meeting Major Guthrie and having some thoughts on revenge, meeting his cousins and having some thoughts about the Jacobite cause, and finally meeting Keith Windham's brother Francis and having some thoughts about Keith (<3). But then, despite Ewen's best efforts, Archie is finally captured, and the rest of the book follows Ewen as he tries in vain to prevent history from taking its course. It's an interesting structure, in that our protagonist is, for much of the time, not really the main character of the actual plot, so the story ends up being more about Ewen's reactions to events and his character development as a result.
And the historical stuff is really interesting! Broster is meticulous about accuracy as ever, and portrays the events leading up to Archie's fate in brilliant, dramatic detail. I was pleased to recognise several little things near the ending (the steel buckles...) from The Lyon in Mourning, which contains copies of Dr Cameron's last writings and an account of his execution. The character of Finlay MacPhair, a spy who apparently plays a role in Archie's capture, appears to be a fictionalised version of Alastair MacDonnell of Glengarry, the real 'Pickle'. I also enjoyed (sad as it was) the stuff earlier in the book about Ewen's life at Ardroy as it is in the wake of the Rising, with redcoats posted up and down the Great Glen and his former way of life largely proscribed. And, against this background, the book contains a lot of very interesting reflection on the ultimate fate of Jacobitism. Ewen wavers at the start between supporting ongoing Jacobite plots and acting to protect his family; later on, of course, he's determined to save Archie, but by the end he has pretty much accepted that for the Cause he loves it is, as the chapter titles put it, 'after sunset'. Broster gets in her honour and loyalty, but in a rather different form—Ewen has to let go of his desires for revenge and a resolution to the events of seven years earlier, and learn to move on. This, and his pre-emptive grief at Archie's death, which is described in some detail, were pretty heartbreaking. And in all this lovely historical detail, I feel like I'm getting to share with Broster a developing and extended interest in this period of history and the story of Jacobitism—it is a fascinating story to explore in more depth, and she certainly does it justice.
But then there's the other thing.
As I mentioned, Ewen meets Keith's brother Francis in one of the dramatic twists of the plot; later, he also meets Keith's mum and his step-dad, the Earl of Stowe, who attempts unsuccessfully to intercede for Archie on Ewen's behalf. While this is all very involved with the plot, it also provides Ewen with lots of opportunity for thinking about Keith, and we see very clearly that he's not over the ending of Flight of the Heron. He calls Keith his 'best friend', has more than one moment of more or less breaking down while thinking about Morar, declares that he will wear the ring Keith gave him until his dying day... Well, I appreciated getting to see that. I like Francis, the charming and hot-tempered, for his own sake as well—the misunderstandings and eventual friendship between him and Ewen are amusing and lovely—and Masters, the devoted old servant who's thrilled at the chance to speak about Keith to Ewen. (Although the episode with Lady Stowe is a bit grotesque, considering the context!).
And I wasn't as upset by seeing Ewen and Alison happily married with children as I might have been (there's a certain tinge to the whole thing, set alongside the rest—beautiful conventions received them; while out beyond the barrier... and all that; but I'm being unfair). Frankly, I think that knowing what was inevitable after the ending of FotH, and having heard many of the details from others in the fandom, I was pretty much already over it, and even I have to admit that, while it's of course the wrong thing, this is a plausible, and plausibly happy, future for Ewen. And the existence of a small boy called Keithie is rather affecting (or, at least, it would have been if his dialogue wasn't so atrociously written—seriously, Sir Isumbras at the Ford wasn't bad but Broster is not good at writing children).
...and yet. It's not that the things I discussed earlier—the plot and history and character development—aren't done really well, because they are. And it's not that the mentions of Keith felt at all perfunctory or insincere—they're neither. But they do seem to sit uncomfortably alongside the rest of the book, an odd idea that doesn't really fit here and doesn't have much to do with what the story is otherwise about. This book is not, in short, the story I love Flight of the Heron for; and I can't help but feel that it's in a sense undermining the significance of FotH to present this as an appropriate continuation of the story. And I think the resulting emotional detachment made it difficult for me to get properly invested in this book, either the story of Archie's fate or Ewen's character development. (Being so fannish about FotH probably doesn't help here; at this point I basically accept as canon the version of events where Keith survives and he and Ewen live happily ever after, and I can't really see a continuation where that's not the case as fully real).
So, to conclude, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I totally understand why Broster chose to write this story, and I think she does it very well for what it is; but, on the other hand, I don't think there was ever any way she could have written it while really doing justice to Flight of the Heron—and that makes me sad, because I feel like she's almost forgetting the most important thing.
(Oh, one other thing—why so little Aunt Margaret? She's away for the entire early part of the plot set at Ardroy, and only appears very briefly in the epilogue. I was disappointed! Although it was amusing to see that sending her away on a visit apparently wasn't as implausible a contrivance as I thought it was while writing 'It Will Be Summer' :P).
Anyway. I'm going to go and bake some shortbread biscuits and read Flight of the Heron fix-it fic.
The Gleam in the North (1927) is D. K. Broster's eighth novel, and it is a sequel to The Flight of the Heron. Now, before I read this one I was somewhat questioning the choice of FotH as a book for which to write a sequel—the story is so well-structured and contained in itself, and of course killing off one of the main characters at the end means it's not really possible to add anything to it. If I was choosing one of Broster's first seven books to write a sequel to I'd go with Sir Isumbras at the Ford, or perhaps 'Mr Rowl', both of which have fairly open endings with all the main characters still alive. I think I understand rather better now why Broster chose FotH instead—but I still don't really agree with the choice.
The action opens in 1752, more than six years since the ending of FotH. Ewen Cameron is back at Ardroy, with Alison and their two young sons, one of whom has a minor adventure and ends up requiring medical treatment. Ewen finds a doctor for him—but it's Archibald Cameron, who, still under an attainder, is back in Scotland secretly on Jacobite business. Appearing at Ardroy is therefore a risk for Archie, and one which, unfortunately, doesn't pay off. Archie escapes from the resulting redcoat raid, but Ewen is captured on suspicion of sheltering him and imprisoned at Fort William. From there... things go downhill, and, well, the rest is history.
The plot is based much more closely around specific historical events than Flight of the Heron—there, while the '45 is portrayed in brilliant historical detail, it's the setting for a fictional plot, but here, particularly later on, the main details of the plot simply are what historically happened to Dr Archibald Cameron in the first half of 1753. The early part of the plot focusses on Ewen's various adventures following his capture and escape—meeting a priest and having some thoughts on religion, meeting Major Guthrie and having some thoughts on revenge, meeting his cousins and having some thoughts about the Jacobite cause, and finally meeting Keith Windham's brother Francis and having some thoughts about Keith (<3). But then, despite Ewen's best efforts, Archie is finally captured, and the rest of the book follows Ewen as he tries in vain to prevent history from taking its course. It's an interesting structure, in that our protagonist is, for much of the time, not really the main character of the actual plot, so the story ends up being more about Ewen's reactions to events and his character development as a result.
And the historical stuff is really interesting! Broster is meticulous about accuracy as ever, and portrays the events leading up to Archie's fate in brilliant, dramatic detail. I was pleased to recognise several little things near the ending (the steel buckles...) from The Lyon in Mourning, which contains copies of Dr Cameron's last writings and an account of his execution. The character of Finlay MacPhair, a spy who apparently plays a role in Archie's capture, appears to be a fictionalised version of Alastair MacDonnell of Glengarry, the real 'Pickle'. I also enjoyed (sad as it was) the stuff earlier in the book about Ewen's life at Ardroy as it is in the wake of the Rising, with redcoats posted up and down the Great Glen and his former way of life largely proscribed. And, against this background, the book contains a lot of very interesting reflection on the ultimate fate of Jacobitism. Ewen wavers at the start between supporting ongoing Jacobite plots and acting to protect his family; later on, of course, he's determined to save Archie, but by the end he has pretty much accepted that for the Cause he loves it is, as the chapter titles put it, 'after sunset'. Broster gets in her honour and loyalty, but in a rather different form—Ewen has to let go of his desires for revenge and a resolution to the events of seven years earlier, and learn to move on. This, and his pre-emptive grief at Archie's death, which is described in some detail, were pretty heartbreaking. And in all this lovely historical detail, I feel like I'm getting to share with Broster a developing and extended interest in this period of history and the story of Jacobitism—it is a fascinating story to explore in more depth, and she certainly does it justice.
But then there's the other thing.
As I mentioned, Ewen meets Keith's brother Francis in one of the dramatic twists of the plot; later, he also meets Keith's mum and his step-dad, the Earl of Stowe, who attempts unsuccessfully to intercede for Archie on Ewen's behalf. While this is all very involved with the plot, it also provides Ewen with lots of opportunity for thinking about Keith, and we see very clearly that he's not over the ending of Flight of the Heron. He calls Keith his 'best friend', has more than one moment of more or less breaking down while thinking about Morar, declares that he will wear the ring Keith gave him until his dying day... Well, I appreciated getting to see that. I like Francis, the charming and hot-tempered, for his own sake as well—the misunderstandings and eventual friendship between him and Ewen are amusing and lovely—and Masters, the devoted old servant who's thrilled at the chance to speak about Keith to Ewen. (Although the episode with Lady Stowe is a bit grotesque, considering the context!).
And I wasn't as upset by seeing Ewen and Alison happily married with children as I might have been (there's a certain tinge to the whole thing, set alongside the rest—beautiful conventions received them; while out beyond the barrier... and all that; but I'm being unfair). Frankly, I think that knowing what was inevitable after the ending of FotH, and having heard many of the details from others in the fandom, I was pretty much already over it, and even I have to admit that, while it's of course the wrong thing, this is a plausible, and plausibly happy, future for Ewen. And the existence of a small boy called Keithie is rather affecting (or, at least, it would have been if his dialogue wasn't so atrociously written—seriously, Sir Isumbras at the Ford wasn't bad but Broster is not good at writing children).
...and yet. It's not that the things I discussed earlier—the plot and history and character development—aren't done really well, because they are. And it's not that the mentions of Keith felt at all perfunctory or insincere—they're neither. But they do seem to sit uncomfortably alongside the rest of the book, an odd idea that doesn't really fit here and doesn't have much to do with what the story is otherwise about. This book is not, in short, the story I love Flight of the Heron for; and I can't help but feel that it's in a sense undermining the significance of FotH to present this as an appropriate continuation of the story. And I think the resulting emotional detachment made it difficult for me to get properly invested in this book, either the story of Archie's fate or Ewen's character development. (Being so fannish about FotH probably doesn't help here; at this point I basically accept as canon the version of events where Keith survives and he and Ewen live happily ever after, and I can't really see a continuation where that's not the case as fully real).
So, to conclude, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I totally understand why Broster chose to write this story, and I think she does it very well for what it is; but, on the other hand, I don't think there was ever any way she could have written it while really doing justice to Flight of the Heron—and that makes me sad, because I feel like she's almost forgetting the most important thing.
(Oh, one other thing—why so little Aunt Margaret? She's away for the entire early part of the plot set at Ardroy, and only appears very briefly in the epilogue. I was disappointed! Although it was amusing to see that sending her away on a visit apparently wasn't as implausible a contrivance as I thought it was while writing 'It Will Be Summer' :P).
Anyway. I'm going to go and bake some shortbread biscuits and read Flight of the Heron fix-it fic.
