aaaaaaaaargh
Jan. 26th, 2020 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeI have had a very pleasant weekend upsetting myself a great deal over The Flight of the Heron. I'm four-fifths of the way through my re-read (not going to face the last fifth just yet...)—I had thought vaguely of reading through it more slowly, but I think that'll have to wait until next time. It's even better than I remembered. I don't think I've ever felt quite this strongly about any book except The Charioteer (and, for all that it's very tragic and breaks my heart, the ending of The Flight of the Heron is not that ending, thank goodness).
Some thoughts so far:
Keith really is absolutely smitten with Ewen at first sight, isn't he? 'Splendidly built', 'a magnificent specimen of young manhood'... I love his POV and their relationship in those first few chapters so much, Keith's mixture of admiration, barbed comments and surprise at how civilised Ewen is, and Ewen's perfect courtesy. Not to mention Keith's constant wondering why he feels so unaccountably strongly about Ewen... No wonder Ewen wasn't quite sure what to make of him.
However, related to that, I do sort of wish we got more of Ewen's perspective in the early part of the book. Not just to get his first impressions of Keith, but also his thoughts about the Prince's arrival and the beginnings of the rising. He's in such an interesting position: unlike Keith he's not a soldier, he's never fought in a war before, and now here he is taking on a major role in a rebellion and leading the men of his clan out to fight against their rulers. How does he feel about this, or about how much Lochiel is relying on him, or about the doubts that he must know Lochiel has, or about the lack of the Prince's promised French support? Obviously he's confident and proud to fight for his Prince, but does he have any real misgivings, at this stage? (I may or may not already have a fic plotted out that will deal with these questions a little, but I need to decide what I want to say...)
He liked to see his civilised young barbarian on the high horse. KEITH.
I am such an awful mono-shipper. I didn't care much about the Ewen/Alison scenes the first time through (it's a type of relationship dynamic that doesn't interest me, but I don't have anything particularly against it), but now I don't like them at all. And, you know, I can't help thinking that in some ways it would be more interesting, from the point of view of character and themes, if they broke things off at Inverness—although obviously not my main reason for thinking that.
The writing really is gorgeous. I love Broster's slightly rambling sentence structure, the descriptions of nature and the landscape, her involved historical asides (which I can appreciate better having read a little about the period—she clearly did her research!).
I'm trying to keep track of details a little more this time, starting with the position of the characters in history.
Donald of Lochiel is, of course, a real person. Ewen is described as Lochiel's 'near kinsman by marriage', and later says that he's his second cousin. I'm not sure whether this means they're second cousins by marriage only (in a Highland clan, having the same surname doesn't necessarily mean they're especially closely related, of course), or second cousins by blood and also more closely related by marriage (presumably one of the fictional marriages on Ewen's family's side, although his mother was from another clan). Interestingly, the details we get about Ewen's father—his first name was John, he fought in the rising of 1719 and went into exile afterwards, where he died—are similar to Donald of Lochiel's own father, although that John survived much longer. Ewen shares his name with—was presumably named after—the famous and memorable Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, Donald's grandfather and an important figure in the earlier Jacobite movement. Ewen, who has just turned 26 in the summer of 1745, would have been born soon after Sir Ewen died, in early 1719. If he and Donald are second cousins, then Sir Ewen is probably our Ewen's great-uncle.
The Earl of Stowe, Keith's stepfather, appears to bear a real title, though one that was only created in the nineteenth century—although the family had been living at a place called Stowe for some time before that. The owner of the estate at the time FotH is set was a pretty big deal, a prominent Whig politician and brother-in-law to Pitt the Elder, but I don't know if there's any connection here.
Anyway. Thoughts on the rest of the book later, I think—as I say, I've read up as far as part four, but I don't think I've really processed part four yet, so I'll post about it another time. :D
Some thoughts so far:
I'm trying to keep track of details a little more this time, starting with the position of the characters in history.
Donald of Lochiel is, of course, a real person. Ewen is described as Lochiel's 'near kinsman by marriage', and later says that he's his second cousin. I'm not sure whether this means they're second cousins by marriage only (in a Highland clan, having the same surname doesn't necessarily mean they're especially closely related, of course), or second cousins by blood and also more closely related by marriage (presumably one of the fictional marriages on Ewen's family's side, although his mother was from another clan). Interestingly, the details we get about Ewen's father—his first name was John, he fought in the rising of 1719 and went into exile afterwards, where he died—are similar to Donald of Lochiel's own father, although that John survived much longer. Ewen shares his name with—was presumably named after—the famous and memorable Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, Donald's grandfather and an important figure in the earlier Jacobite movement. Ewen, who has just turned 26 in the summer of 1745, would have been born soon after Sir Ewen died, in early 1719. If he and Donald are second cousins, then Sir Ewen is probably our Ewen's great-uncle.
The Earl of Stowe, Keith's stepfather, appears to bear a real title, though one that was only created in the nineteenth century—although the family had been living at a place called Stowe for some time before that. The owner of the estate at the time FotH is set was a pretty big deal, a prominent Whig politician and brother-in-law to Pitt the Elder, but I don't know if there's any connection here.
Anyway. Thoughts on the rest of the book later, I think—as I say, I've read up as far as part four, but I don't think I've really processed part four yet, so I'll post about it another time. :D
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Date: Jan. 26th, 2020 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 26th, 2020 08:25 pm (UTC):D
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Date: Jan. 26th, 2020 08:42 pm (UTC)(So, apparently the book is hard to find in my area, and none of the big bookstores have it, but I've just e-mailed a network of used bookstores/sellers, to see if someone can find it. Fingers crossed!)
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Date: Jan. 26th, 2020 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 27th, 2020 05:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 26th, 2020 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 27th, 2020 06:56 pm (UTC)To your second point, YES, I would really love to read that! Can I strongly suggest that you read Christopher Duffy's The '45 before you write it? Besides having all the details on troop movements etc, it has really interesting points of characterization for Charles Edward Stuart, his advisors and his staff officers that I think you might want to bounce off.
Would you write it all the way to Prestonpans? Ewen would have been there even if Keith wasn't, and he would've been right on the front lines--all the clan chiefs were. The Camerons were running straight at the (fortunately poorly served) artillery. If you don't, I may need to write that scene myself at some point. : D
Re: Ewen/Alison, I do side-eye Ewen's flirty talk of abduction in the prologue, but other than that I don't mind their relationship (except of course that it stands in the way of Keith/Ewen). I'm pretty sure that I will at some point write a long Keith/Ewen/Alison fic, or rather, Keith/Ewen + Ewen/Alison. I think I could do interesting things with that.
Yes to the absolutely gorgeous writing--I'm so looking forward to recording the whole thing.
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Date: Jan. 28th, 2020 05:06 am (UTC)Yes to the absolutely gorgeous writing--I'm so looking forward to recording the whole thing. I look forward to listening to it! :D
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Date: Jan. 28th, 2020 07:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 28th, 2020 07:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Jan. 28th, 2020 08:25 am (UTC)