Recent reading

[regshoe]

Other books read on holiday and since...


The Happy Return/Beat to Quarters by C. S. Forester (1937; different titles when published in different countries). My first attempt at getting into Age of Sail fandoms! I can't say I enjoyed this one hugely, but I have only myself to blame for that, because I had heard from Hornblower fans that reading the books in publication order is a bad idea and then decided to start with the first-published anyway. (I read the Discworld books in publication order when I was twelve and it didn't do me any harm...!) However—this is a very detailed story of sailing, imperial politics and highly questionable personal decisions set in/off the coast of Central America during the Napoleonic wars; Our Hero, Captain Horatio Hornblower, has to navigate commanding his crew, following difficult orders from the Admiralty, negotiating with some very strange local rulers, more than one suitably dramatic sea battle and an encounter with the strong-willed and somewhat improper Lady Barbara Wellesley (a fictional sister of the future Duke of Wellington). Hornblower would very much like to be a human person with feelings, idiosyncrasies and weaknesses, but he is absolutely convinced that this would be the most unpardonably un-captainlike thing he could possibly do, and so he tries his utmost to conceal his entire character beneath a facade of hard, featureless naval perfection. All his crew love him for it; my reaction to the extremes of this was a sort of cringing horror mixed with annoyance. I think the worst/best bit for me was where Hornblower thinks about how he hasn't discussed his orders with his officers, even though he isn't required to keep them a total secret, because he loves talking and gossiping about everything and is terrified of saying too much and spoiling his reputation. I feel sorry for him, but he does make it difficult! There were also some hints of where people get their slash shipping for this fandom from (I gather that the popular pairing is Hornblower and Bush, the first lieutenant with whom he can't possibly discuss his orders), which was entertaining, but not more than a few hints as yet.

sanguinity tells me that the mood of the books and the portrayal of Hornblower as a character shifted considerably over the course of Forester's writing career, and that the later books are much better. I'm planning to try Lieutenant Hornblower, her recommendation from the later books, next, and then if I like it I may go back and read the rest. I'm also going to try the Aubrey-Maturin books, which I gather are better-written and have some natural history in them.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911). A classic which I somehow managed to miss out on reading as a child—I think I saw a film adaptation of it at some point, but I can't remember the details. Anyway, I think this book is basically the idea of 'oh, go and get some nice fresh air, you'll feel better!' incarnated as a novel, an impressive achievement. Ten-year-old Mary Lennox, having grown up in the stultifying climate of India, loses her parents to cholera in one of the more horrifying opening sequences to a children's book I've read in a while and then finds herself sent to Yorkshire to live with her uncle in a big house next to The Moors. She is moody and unpleasant, but gradually transforms under the influence of Good Yorkshire Fresh Air and, most importantly, the garden of the title. This belonged to her uncle's wife, and he heartbrokenly abandoned it after her death years before; Mary is shown the door to the garden, all overgrown with ivy, and the key, buried in the earth, by a helpful local robin who befriends her, and sets to work restoring the garden alongside Dickon, the young brother of Mary's maidservant and a sort of local slightly-magical-nature-spirit friend to all animals (it's just occurred to me to compare him to Thomas Godbless, which seems like an interesting idea). Her cousin Colin, who has spent his life being hidden away in the house and convinced that he's hopelessly ill and surely won't live to adulthood, also joins in and is restored to perfect health. I thought all the Wholesome Fresh Air stuff was, er, just a little bit OTT—apparently it originated from Hodgson Burnett's Christian Science beliefs, which perhaps explains the sense of religious fervour in it. But I did enjoy the book overall, and especially all the nature descriptions, magical friendly animals and slightly absurd adulation of the general concept of Yorkshire. The attitudes to health in this context were certainly wobbly, however—I thought Hodgson Burnett convincingly argued that Colin's illness in particular was the result of persuasion and expectations rather than an actual physical disability and could plausibly be 'cured' by fresh air etc., but I was left with a certain suspicion that she wouldn't be especially ready to accept the idea that many disabilities are not that. Also, I remember ethelmay commenting on one of my posts about Juliana Horatia Ewing that a lot of the stuff in this book was ripped off from Six to Sixteen, which, yes, it totally was!

(Looking it up now, FHB not only never lived in Yorkshire, she was actually born in Lancashire. Who'd have thought! o_O )

Emily Davis by Miss Read (1971). Read towards the end of my holiday, when I was getting tired and wanted some comfort reading—the next Fairacre book is always a reliable choice for that. This one begins with the death of Emily Davis, one of the older generation of teacher characters, and shows various friends, former pupils and other members of the community reacting to the news and reminiscing about Emily and her influence on their own lives—helping them, guiding them in their choices, reacting to and wisely overlooking various transgressions and generally being a good influence. It's solidly good in the way of Miss Read books—gentle, perceptive and sympathetic. I especially liked the significance which Emily Davis's life as a single woman gets to have—her fiance left her due to his WWI trauma and she never married, living happily in retirement with her lifelong best friend Dolly Clare, and the portrayal of this situation is lovely; regretting what didn't happen, but living a full and happy life nonetheless. I also sympathised especially with one of Emily's former pupils, who's now living in London for work and, thinking about her old teacher, realises how awful the city is (crowded, noisy, unbearable in a heatwave, etc.) and decides to go back home to the country.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940). I had been meaning to read this one for ages—the library's copy was bizarrely determined to evade me, but it does prove to exist after all—and I'm glad I got round to it now. It's a more or less plotless novel following the lives of various characters in a mill town somewhere in the US South just before the Second World War; the central figure is John Singer, a deaf and mute man who becomes the unlikely friend and confidant of several very different characters variously hurt and unsatisfied by their lives. Basically it's a story about the human longing for connection and meaningful purpose, as the other main characters seek in Singer someone who will understand their troubles: a thirteen-year-old girl from a poor and overcrowded family who cherishes a passion for classical music and dreams of becoming a composer; a doctor striving to improve the lot of his fellow black Americans, who ultimately fails to make the changes he wants even in his own family; a young man who comes to the town as a sort of vagrant and finds work at a carnival while determined to spread the word of his Marxist ideals to the workers of America; the owner of a cafe (incidentally, defined in the same oddly broad way as in The Ballad of the Sad Cafe) which the other characters frequent, who deals with various personal troubles and lonelinesses surrounding the death of his wife. But Singer is not really the friend the others all seek in him—his muteness and the resulting lack of actual communication between them impede real understanding while allowing them to project whatever they need onto him. And Singer too has an ideal friend, another deaf-mute man who is carted off to an asylum at the start of the book; his loss is a source of great pain to Singer throughout, and none of the other characters ever understands or even, I think, actually knows about it, but Singer's relationship with his friend ultimately seems as self-created and unreal as the others' friendships with him. The whole thing is an oddly dislocated book. It's very, very good! McCullers portrays highly varied and complicated situations, emotions and reactions in brilliantly precise detail, and sums up her characters' predicaments with understanding and sympathy; but it is somewhat grim and very pessimistic about the potential for real connection between people, and I think this gloominess was a bit too much for me in the end.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Interesting that the beginning is not the best place to start with the Hornblower books! I'd be curious to know which ones are worth reading and in what order.

In many of her books FHB will grab onto an idea and hold it like a terrier, and in The Secret Garden it's clearly the Fresh Air of Yorkshire! Fascinating that she never lived there; she evokes it so vividly! (The robin, I think, is based on an actual robin friend of Burnett's: she wrote a short book called My Robin, which is about a robin that used to visit her in her garden.)

I love the Miss Read books. They're so gentle and relaxing and well-observed.

[regshoe]

'The beginning' is not a simply-defined thing, since the order in which the books were written and published is not the same as their internal chronological order! sanguinity is the person to talk to for advice on reading order—I understand that in general the later-published but earlier-set books are more worthwhile.

Aww, how lovely about FHB's robin friend! I did think it worked very well as a sort of slightly-magical exaggeration of the way real robins behave.

[sanguinity]

Forester wrote the eleven novels over a thirty-year period (the last novel unfinished because of his death), and his skill as a writer improved considerably over that period. His narrative outlook changes somewhat, too, in my opinion, with the original run being more jaded and pessimistic. Also the very first-written novel has dated badly because of racism. So I generally don't recommend pub order for anyone new to the character or series: The Happy Return/Beat to Quarters is a fairly unpleasant introduction to the character.

If you're a completionist, reading by internal chronology works pretty nicely: you start with the better-written prequels, when Hornblower is still young and fresh-faced, his foibles more easily excused by youth. There's still a rather unpleasant jolt when you get to the first-pubbed novel -- his character changes a bit and his reported backstory changes more -- but by then a reader knows whether they're attached enough to want to continue with the original series of novels.

If you're going to read just one, however, I recommend Lieutenant Hornblower, the second novel by internal chronology. It has an alternate pov that I like a lot, it's set before all the awful stuff with his wives, Hornblower is still a cute young thing who is open to making friends, and it's the slashiest novel of the series.

If, after that, you're open to one or two more but still aren't feeling like taking on the whole series, I'd recommend Hornblower on the Hotspur (the immediate sequel to Lieutenant), which sits at the better end of what a 'typical' Hornblower novel is like, and Flying Colours, which is part of the original run but nevertheless has a bunch of deliciously slashy hurt/comfort in it. (Flying Colours is my second favorite novel in the series.) Flying Colors does pick up immediately after the cliffhanger at the end of A Ship of the Line, but you can still read it as a stand-alone if you want (or you can get someone -- me! -- to give you a cheat-sheet).

[osprey_archer]

Oh, thank you! I can always start with the better-written prequels and then just stop along the way if I decide the books later in the chronology are just Too Much to deal with...

[sanguinity]

Sure, my pleasure! I do think Flying Colours has got a lot of good stuff in it, especially for Hornblower/Bush shippers, but usually people have a good idea of what they're up for by then.

[osprey_archer]

I will probably end up reading them all because that is just the kind of person I am, but it is good to know that one CAN get off the ride if one desires.

[regshoe]

Heh, I feel about the same way :D

[troisoiseaux]

I'm also going to try the Aubrey-Maturin books, which I gather are better-written and have some natural history in them.

I've never read any of the Hornblower books, but I love the Aubrey-Maturin ones!

[regshoe]

I have my eye on the library's copy of Master and Commander right now :D I look forward to them!

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Anyway, I think this book is basically the idea of 'oh, go and get some nice fresh air, you'll feel better!' incarnated as a novel, an impressive achievement.

I snorted, what a perfect summary!

[regshoe]

:D It's certainly a book that sticks to its ideas!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I confess I have written porn for The Secret Garden. It's a decent story.

Carson McCullers was required reading when I was a young student. I remember it being very depressing.

[regshoe]

Yeah, 'very good, but very depressing' is the general impression I get from McCullers so far. I may try some more of her books, but only occasionally. :)

[hyarrowen]

Hornblower and Emily Davis, not a bad couple of books for comfort reads! Hornblower is frankly a cad, but Bush likes him, so..... Lt Hornblower is a great one for their relationship, surpassed by Flying Colours which comes much later in the sequence. One thing I really like about CS Forester is that he seems to understand what makes a ship go..

And Miss Read is always a good choice. <3

[regshoe]

Flying Colours is another of the ones on my list to read next (apparently it has lots of slashy hurt/comfort, always an attraction :D ). I'd like to get to know Bush better. And I admit that all the ship stuff somewhat flies over my head, but it certainly does build a detailed and interesting setting.

And Miss Read is always a good choice. <3

Absolutely :)

[sanguinity]

I admit that all the ship stuff somewhat flies over my head

You'll be pleased to know then that Flying Colours takes place almost entirely on land. :-)

[regshoe]

Aww, I didn't say I disliked it :D But that sounds like a nice bit of variety, anyway.

[sanguinity]

Yeah, I'm not surprised you disliked The Happy Return -- I'd rate it as the second-worst of the novels for sheer unpleasantness. I'm a little surprised you got any shippy feelings out of it all, actually, seeing how at this point Forester was still maintaining that Hornblower and Bush had never sailed together before -- this is supposedly their first voyage together, and he doesn't even talk to him if he can help it!

I feel sorry for him, but he does make it difficult!

That's Hornblower for you, especially in the original run, when he has enough autonomy that he presumably could make different choices if he wanted to.

There's an argument that for many of us in the fandom who are attached to him, we are so because we recognize in him our own mental health problems. I can't really argue against the readers who think he's hard to take -- he is a lot, especially in the original run -- but speaking for myself, I have all too much sympathy for how exhausting and demoralizing it is to have a brain that works like that. :-/

[regshoe]

...dare I ask which is the worst?

Hmm, that's interesting about the backstory changing in the later books! But I did like lines like Bush found his hand twitching—he had been about to commit the enormity of patting his captain’s shoulder, and restrained himself just in time. —that sort of extreme emotional repression is generally a good basis for shipping. :D

I have all too much sympathy for how exhausting and demoralizing it is to have a brain that works like that. :-/

I'm sorry. <3 But I see what you mean—I didn't relate to Hornblower that way but I certainly have done to other fictional characters with weird issues, and it's definitely validating in a kind of bleak sort of way.

[sanguinity]

...dare I ask which is the worst?

Lord Hornblower, the final novel of the original run, and second-to-last in internal chronology. I can discuss why if you'd like, but just so you know, the discussion would mostly be spoilers.

Bush found his hand twitching—he had been about to commit the enormity of patting his captain’s shoulder, and restrained himself just in time.

Bush wants to pat his captain's shoulder SO MUCH. iirc, that's not the only time it comes up over the course of the series.

I also like the bit in BtQ where they argue about who is going to get some sleep, and Hornblower orders Bush to bed, and then Bush, not to be outdone, sneakily sends Hornblower's steward up to try to connive Hornblower into getting some rest, too. There's also the moonlit scene where Bush and Barbara confer on how admirable and tortured Hornblower is and coordinate who should take care of him.

—that sort of extreme emotional repression is generally a good basis for shipping. :D

It is! And there certainly is a lot of it in the series.

it's definitely validating in a kind of bleak sort of way.

Yup. Mind you, it's not the only reason people latch on to him -- there are also trans readings of Hornblower that some find compelling (based on how HARD Hornblower works at doing command/masculinity correctly, and how much he envies Bush for being a better Georgian Man than he is). And others come in via the TV show, wherein Hornblower is written to be a lot more likeable. It's a grab-bag of things, like any fandom.

[regshoe]

Lord Hornblower, the final novel of the original run, and second-to-last in internal chronology. I can discuss why if you'd like, but just so you know, the discussion would mostly be spoilers.

Ah, OK—I'll see what I make of it when I get there, then...

Excellent, I shall look forward to more terribly significant attempted shoulder-pats :D And yes, the arguments about getting some rest and taking care of Hornblower were very good too!

It's a grab-bag of things, like any fandom.

That sounds like a very interesting range of interpretations! And a more likeable Hornblower in the TV show sounds potentially good—is it a decent adaptation, do you think?

[sanguinity]

There's a lot that's done well about the series, and I enjoy it on its own terms. However, I tend not to engage with it much fannishly, as some of the show's efforts to make Horatio more likeable invited shipping discourse upon the fandom, and I'm a bit resentful of the result.

(To wit: they created an OC to be friends with Horatio during a period where Horatio canonically had no friends, then when they got to the book where Bush arrives, they gave a lot of Bush's best material to the OC. Then when the OC was written out to bring the TV series back in line with the books, fans of the OC became resentful of Bush allegedly 'stealing' the OC's rightful place in the narrative, etc. etc. It's a big mess; I do not like; I try to avoid any part of it.)

[regshoe]

Oh dear, that does sound like a bit of a mess—I don't blame you!

[lirazel]

Wow, I never considered what it might be like to read The Secret Garden for the first time as an adult. (I highly, highly recommend the 1993 film! It de-emphasizes some of the things that annoy you most and it's gorgeous!)

[regshoe]

Ooh, thank you for the rec—that sounds lovely, and I think I'd enjoy a film adaptation that makes the most of the book's gorgeous nature descriptions :D

[lirazel]

There's some weird ~India stuff~ that's brought over from the movies, very typical Victorianisms, but other than that, I think it's just a nearly flawless film.

[theseatheseatheopensea]

I was going to suggest the A-M books if you hadn't mentioned them! They are delightful, and even though all the sailing stuff is A Lot, they have glossaries (I definitely used them!), and the characters are awesome, especially Dr Maturin and his love of nature. And his friendship with Captain Aubrey is Life Goals! <3 There's a movie that combines some of the storylines from the books, and it's a delight as well!

Speaking of movies, I second lirazel's rec of the 1990s "Secret Garden" one--I loved it as a kid, and it held up when I rewatched it as a grown up! The book is very sweet, but you're absolutely right about the whole Fresh Air Will Cure You thing being a bit too much, and also overly simplistic--it's a bit like telling sick and/or disabled people that their pain is all in their heads, or suggesting to depressed people that they do yoga and think positive thoughts! But the nature stuff is definitely lovely! And oh, I can totally see the parallels between Dickon and Thomas Godbless! :D

"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is a lot, isn't it? I feel that being kind of plotless is part of the point in many of her books, right? She's so good at showing a bleak but realistic view of people who don't get to do many big things or make many choices in their life. I'm always touched by the quiet dignity of her characters, who basically know from day one that their life is going to be a series of failures, so their only choice is how they will deal with them--and that's also limited. So we have someone like Singer, who ends his life on his own terms, because there's nothing else for him anymore, and then someone like Mick, who steps into the role she is supposed to have in life, hating it but being quietly resigned, also because there's nothing else for her. It's sad, but also very sympathetically shown! And, like you said, her writing really is about that longing for connection and meaningful purpose, and how, more often than not, that's just a wish that never comes true. That search for belonging, for an "ideal friend" that doesn't exist, she gets it absolutely right, every time, and it's especially relevant from a queer+disabled perspective. If you ever want a less depressing book by her that still deals with a lot of these themes, I recommend "The Member of the wedding".

[regshoe]

Glossaries—better and better :D All that certainly sounds very good, and I'll look forward to trying out the books!

The book is very sweet, but you're absolutely right about the whole Fresh Air Will Cure You thing being a bit too much, and also overly simplistic--it's a bit like telling sick and/or disabled people that their pain is all in their heads, or suggesting to depressed people that they do yoga and think positive thoughts! But the nature stuff is definitely lovely!

Exactly! It was frustrating, really, because Fresh Air and the beautiful Yorkshire moors and nature etc. really can be good for mood and mental health, I find, and it's lovely to have that portrayed in a book—but FHB can't stop there, she has to act like it's this miraculous cure-all and in the process suggest that the things it's curing were never really real in the first place *facepalm* And I will certainly try that film, it sounds lovely.

"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is a lot, isn't it?

Yep! I see what you mean about the 'quiet dignity' of characters who don't get happy endings or the things they wanted—there's a kind of strength in that, bleak as it is. As well as the queer/disabled perspective, which I really liked (both Mick and Brannon seemed potentially queer to me, as well as Singer and Antonapoulos—do you think so?). But I suppose I can't believe that real connection is actually as impossible as she seems to think it is, even if the perfect 'ideal friendship' is an impossible ideal, and it feels like a too-miserable denial of any hope. I will try The Member of the Wedding, though—that does sound good!

[theseatheseatheopensea]

(both Mick and Brannon seemed potentially queer to me, as well as Singer and Antonapoulos—do you think so?).

I absolutely do! And it's true that McCullers's books are mainly about denial of any hope, which can be miserable, but I still appreciate her practical and matter of fact way of approaching it, and how she shows the dignity in accepting it--I agree in that there's strength in it. I also like the care and respect she shows towards her characters' inner lives/daydreams/secret wishes, and how those are sometimes the only thing that keeps them going, even if they don't come true. I think it goes really well with her disabled/queer perspective. Oh, and "The Member of the Wedding" doesn't end in such a bleak note, while still really understanding that need to belong (the main character calls it "the we of me") and how that can happen or not. It's really good!

[regshoe]

Yes, I agree about her respect for the characters' inner lives! I always like when an author really cares about their characters, and McCullers does that even while she gives them such bleak lives.

"The Member of the Wedding" doesn't end in such a bleak note, while still really understanding that need to belong (the main character calls it "the we of me") and how that can happen or not. It's really good!

That does sound very good—I'll definitely put it on the to-read list :)