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regshoeI like The Flight of the Heron so much that I've decided to embark on a read-through of the author's complete bibliography. D. K. Broster, over a forty-year career, wrote twelve novels alone, co-wrote another three, and also wrote two collections of short stories, one book of poetry and one non-fiction book (apparently a biography), so this should keep me in reading material for a while! Chantemerle (1911), co-written with G. W. Taylor, was her first published work.
First, some background. If you don't already know (I didn't!), the Vendean War was a counter-Revolutionary rising of the people of the Vendée, a region in the west of France, in 1793. Two major reasons why the Vendean peasants weren't very happy with the Revolution were 1) the Vendean aristocrats tended to live on their estates, where they knew their tenants personally and treated them relatively well, rather than horrifically oppressing them and using the profits to fund a life of decadence in Paris like the rest of the nobility and 2) the region was strongly Catholic and objected to the whole 'Church bad' aspect of the Revolution. Both of these are pretty relevant to this book.
Chantemerle follows the fortunes of Gilbert de Château-Foix, the owner of an estate in the Vendée, and his cousin Louis de Saint-Ermay, who grew up with him at Chantemerle. Gilbert is a serious-minded and forward-thinking landowner with strange ideas about 'agricultural improvement' and 'crop rotation' and 'turnips', whereas Louis is a reckless and irresponsible young cad who spends his time living a life of decadence in Paris and getting mixed up in plots against the Revolutionaries—unlike the Liberal Gilbert, he is a staunch Royalist. Unsurprisingly, Louis gets into political trouble, and Gilbert has to go and rescue him. Unfortunately, Louis also spent his time in Paris falling in love with Lucienne d'Aucourt, Gilbert's arranged fiancée, and this causes a great deal of tension and drama between the two cousins—as well as anguish for Lucienne herself, who escapes to exile in England along with Gilbert's mother. Finally, after surviving various adventures and perils together, they make it back to Chantemerle... and then the Vendean War gets going.
Several of the distinctive features of Flight of the Heron are recognisable in this book: a central intense relationship between two men which is tested by conflicts of loyalty and duty; a comparatively underdeveloped het romance where the female half goes off into exile partway through the book and doesn't really do anything; very many questions of Honour; an awful lot of emotionally fraught hurt/comfort; and, of course, an impressive amount of historical research and detail. D. K. Broster knows what she likes, and happily most of it is stuff that I like too—I enjoyed it all very much. Given that they're cousins who've known each other most of their lives and are fighting on the same side, Louis and Gilbert's relationship really ends up reading as less straightforwardly positive than Keith and Ewen's—their disagreements over politics, each other's life choices and, of course, Lucienne lead to a lot of conflict between them. But there is eventually an emotional reconciliation, all written in lovely Brosterian detail. Once you get past the obvious similarities it's a very different sort of relationship from Ewen/Keith (I shipped them a bit anyway—the AU where Gilbert realises that his passionate fury and hatred for Louis has become more about Louis himself than it ever was about Lucienne, and whoops, perhaps that passion isn't all hatred anymore, could be pretty fun to read—but I'm not sure it's OTP material :P).
The conflicts over Honour and Duty are more personal than political, and felt a little unnecessary at times—the notion that it would be better for Lucienne not only to give up Louis for Gilbert's sake, but to hide from Gilbert the fact that she doesn't love him and go through with the marriage anyway, was kind of ridiculous. However, I still enjoyed all the tension they caused—and especially the fact that Lucienne herself, as well as the men, gets caught up in the Love vs. Duty heartbreak—and all the beautifully written relationship scenes involved in working them out. The scene at the ford where Gilbert fails to challenge Louis to a duel was especially memorable. The later part of the book, in which Gilbert has to learn to lead his people in their war against the Revolutionaries and Louis has to grow up into a serious and courageous fighter, was also very dramatic and enjoyable to read, although my relative lack of sympathy with the Royalist cause (I read too much Victor Hugo at an impressionable age) probably made it less so than it might have been.
Another interesting feature of this book is the extent to which it doesn't read like obviously the work of two distinct authors. I can recognise some things that it has in common with FotH and reason that those were probably Broster, and some things that it doesn't—like the emphasis on religion—and reason that those were probably Taylor, but overall it is a very well-unified whole (more so than, for instance, Good Omens, IMO). It's impressive. (I can't find very much information about Taylor besides the books—this and The Vision Splendid—which she co-wrote with Broster, and she doesn't seem to have published any books on her own).
Anyway! I could say more (including spoilery things—this book has another and particularly drawn-out emotional ending...), but I think that's enough for now. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to fans of The Flight of the Heron, and I think this read-through was a good idea.
First, some background. If you don't already know (I didn't!), the Vendean War was a counter-Revolutionary rising of the people of the Vendée, a region in the west of France, in 1793. Two major reasons why the Vendean peasants weren't very happy with the Revolution were 1) the Vendean aristocrats tended to live on their estates, where they knew their tenants personally and treated them relatively well, rather than horrifically oppressing them and using the profits to fund a life of decadence in Paris like the rest of the nobility and 2) the region was strongly Catholic and objected to the whole 'Church bad' aspect of the Revolution. Both of these are pretty relevant to this book.
Chantemerle follows the fortunes of Gilbert de Château-Foix, the owner of an estate in the Vendée, and his cousin Louis de Saint-Ermay, who grew up with him at Chantemerle. Gilbert is a serious-minded and forward-thinking landowner with strange ideas about 'agricultural improvement' and 'crop rotation' and 'turnips', whereas Louis is a reckless and irresponsible young cad who spends his time living a life of decadence in Paris and getting mixed up in plots against the Revolutionaries—unlike the Liberal Gilbert, he is a staunch Royalist. Unsurprisingly, Louis gets into political trouble, and Gilbert has to go and rescue him. Unfortunately, Louis also spent his time in Paris falling in love with Lucienne d'Aucourt, Gilbert's arranged fiancée, and this causes a great deal of tension and drama between the two cousins—as well as anguish for Lucienne herself, who escapes to exile in England along with Gilbert's mother. Finally, after surviving various adventures and perils together, they make it back to Chantemerle... and then the Vendean War gets going.
Several of the distinctive features of Flight of the Heron are recognisable in this book: a central intense relationship between two men which is tested by conflicts of loyalty and duty; a comparatively underdeveloped het romance where the female half goes off into exile partway through the book and doesn't really do anything; very many questions of Honour; an awful lot of emotionally fraught hurt/comfort; and, of course, an impressive amount of historical research and detail. D. K. Broster knows what she likes, and happily most of it is stuff that I like too—I enjoyed it all very much. Given that they're cousins who've known each other most of their lives and are fighting on the same side, Louis and Gilbert's relationship really ends up reading as less straightforwardly positive than Keith and Ewen's—their disagreements over politics, each other's life choices and, of course, Lucienne lead to a lot of conflict between them. But there is eventually an emotional reconciliation, all written in lovely Brosterian detail. Once you get past the obvious similarities it's a very different sort of relationship from Ewen/Keith (I shipped them a bit anyway—the AU where Gilbert realises that his passionate fury and hatred for Louis has become more about Louis himself than it ever was about Lucienne, and whoops, perhaps that passion isn't all hatred anymore, could be pretty fun to read—but I'm not sure it's OTP material :P).
The conflicts over Honour and Duty are more personal than political, and felt a little unnecessary at times—the notion that it would be better for Lucienne not only to give up Louis for Gilbert's sake, but to hide from Gilbert the fact that she doesn't love him and go through with the marriage anyway, was kind of ridiculous. However, I still enjoyed all the tension they caused—and especially the fact that Lucienne herself, as well as the men, gets caught up in the Love vs. Duty heartbreak—and all the beautifully written relationship scenes involved in working them out. The scene at the ford where Gilbert fails to challenge Louis to a duel was especially memorable. The later part of the book, in which Gilbert has to learn to lead his people in their war against the Revolutionaries and Louis has to grow up into a serious and courageous fighter, was also very dramatic and enjoyable to read, although my relative lack of sympathy with the Royalist cause (I read too much Victor Hugo at an impressionable age) probably made it less so than it might have been.
Another interesting feature of this book is the extent to which it doesn't read like obviously the work of two distinct authors. I can recognise some things that it has in common with FotH and reason that those were probably Broster, and some things that it doesn't—like the emphasis on religion—and reason that those were probably Taylor, but overall it is a very well-unified whole (more so than, for instance, Good Omens, IMO). It's impressive. (I can't find very much information about Taylor besides the books—this and The Vision Splendid—which she co-wrote with Broster, and she doesn't seem to have published any books on her own).
Anyway! I could say more (including spoilery things—this book has another and particularly drawn-out emotional ending...), but I think that's enough for now. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to fans of The Flight of the Heron, and I think this read-through was a good idea.
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 07:02 pm (UTC)Ha! Agreed! Most of her early books (before TFOTH) seem to be set during the French revolution or thereabouts, don't they? In the other book by hers I've read, the characters are Royalists too. But they are likable in spite of that! ;)
It's good to know that her themes of friendship and honour and loyalty are here in her first book too! :) And it's always enjoyable to read books that are as well-researched as hers, isn't it? Good luck with the read-through, it really sounds like a great idea! :D
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 07:15 pm (UTC)I feel like it's much easier to sympathise with the supporters of one king against another (plausibly genuinely worse) king than in a king vs. republican conflict. But yeah, there is certainly something of the 'Wrong but Wromantic' monarchist glamour, despite the dodgy politics :) I'll have to see what I think of her other French Revolution books!
It's good to know that her themes of friendship and honour and loyalty are here in her first book too! :) And it's always enjoyable to read books that are as well-researched as hers, isn't it? Good luck with the read-through, it really sounds like a great idea! :D
It certainly is—I can see myself getting into so many new historical periods and settings because of this :D And thank you, I hope it will be!
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 07:29 pm (UTC)I feel the same way! The Royalists/Chouans/Vendée soldiers might also have that loyalty and honour vibe, but it feels harder to find them relatable, so the fact that we can, even in a small way, probably speaks volumes about Broster's talent for writing!
That's one of my favourite things about reading! :)
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 07:35 pm (UTC)That's one of my favourite things about reading! :)
It's certainly been one of my favourite things about The Flight of the Heron :D
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 07:22 pm (UTC)very many questions of Honour; an awful lot of emotionally fraught hurt/comfort; and, of course, an impressive amount of historical research and detail.
*Stupidly happy grin*
(Some Broster novels are on Scribd, including Flight of the Heron. Chantemerle is unfortunately not.)
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 08:15 pm (UTC)(Scans are totally ok when you're living in a non-english speaking country, and the chances of finding the book is close to zero otherwise.)
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 08:56 pm (UTC)I am two thirds of the way through The Wounded Name, which, wow--half the book is an extended and extremely slashy hurt-comfort sequence. More when I review it...
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Date: Apr. 23rd, 2020 05:30 am (UTC)Ooh, The Wounded Name sounds excellent—I can't wait to get to it :D
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Date: Apr. 22nd, 2020 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 23rd, 2020 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 26th, 2020 10:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Apr. 26th, 2020 04:40 pm (UTC)It should be out of copyright in the US, where the term of copyright is 95 years after publication. In the UK it's lifetime of the author + 70 years, so Broster's solo works will come into the public domain at the beginning of next year (she died in 1950), but I don't know when Taylor died—as I said, I can't find out anything about her—so I'm not sure about that! However, Gutenberg.org uses US copyright law, so it should be fine to go up there—I believe you submit books here, and there's more information on this site.
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Date: Apr. 26th, 2020 08:16 pm (UTC)My OCR attempts this morning were very successful. The transcript is almost 100% accurate. The only problem is that the scanned pdf itself has some missing words, so if I can get hold of a hard copy I'll probably scan that myself instead.
Now I just have to wait until coronavirus lockdown ends (fingers crossed) and I can start getting parcels delivered again...
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Date: Apr. 27th, 2020 05:06 am (UTC)