Recent reading
Mar. 5th, 2023 08:24 pmKirsteen by Margaret Oliphant (1890)
I really enjoyed this! Thanks to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
regshoe for pushing it up my list, although I'd already had it on my e-reader for some time. This was a historical novel even when written, since it is set in the 1810s--but it is very much not a Regency romance (not that this genre was invented yet). In fact, it is not a romance at all, and going by this book and the one regshoe just reviewed, the author seems to like writing about women making their living in a profession, which I definitely enjoyed. Kirsteen Douglas’s grandfather lost his estate in the ’45 and now her father has just a small farm, but they still have all their family pride. Kirsteen gets secretly engaged to a young man going off to colonial service in India, and while he's gone, she is courted by an older laird, whom her father wishes her to marry. But of course she doesn't want to, and the housekeeper, a very sensible and supportive woman, helps her run off and find another life for herself in London as an apprentice to a mantua maker...
This is what she later thinks of marriage: Kirsteen stood and looked upon them all with a flash of scorn. Was this the effect of marrying and being happy as people say? The little plump mother with her rosy face no longer capable of responding to any call outside of her own little circle of existence, the babies delving with their spoons into the porridge, covering their faces and pinafores, or holding up little gaping mouths to be fed. It had been a delightful picture which she had come in upon before at an earlier stage, when Anne had wept at her mother’s name, and cried wistfully for a message from home, and longed to show her children. That had all been sweet—but now it was sweet no longer. The prosaic interior, the bondage of all these little necessities, the loosening of all other bonds of older date or wider reach, was this what happiness meant?
The only thing I didn't enjoy in the book was an extended section of "will this good-for-nothing man manage to seduce and ruin this young innocent woman (not Kirsteen) or not?" in the second part. But the ending of Kirsteen's story is awesome.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)
I got in two days of hiking some time ago, so it was time for another Austen audiobook! It had been ages since I read this one, and I enjoyed it, though it is not my favorite of hers. It is funny though, when Isabella wants to be teased about some romantic prospect, and Catherine takes her injunctions not to tease her seriously, so that Isabella has to supply the teasing herself… and wow, John Thorpe. /o\ I can just see the author nodding politely at some annoying guy, while thinking to herself, I'm totally going to skewer you in my book. I do like Catherine and Henry, though it would be nice if Catherine could have got some more experience of life before marrying.
I really enjoyed this! Thanks to
regshoe for pushing it up my list, although I'd already had it on my e-reader for some time. This was a historical novel even when written, since it is set in the 1810s--but it is very much not a Regency romance (not that this genre was invented yet). In fact, it is not a romance at all, and going by this book and the one regshoe just reviewed, the author seems to like writing about women making their living in a profession, which I definitely enjoyed. Kirsteen Douglas’s grandfather lost his estate in the ’45 and now her father has just a small farm, but they still have all their family pride. Kirsteen gets secretly engaged to a young man going off to colonial service in India, and while he's gone, she is courted by an older laird, whom her father wishes her to marry. But of course she doesn't want to, and the housekeeper, a very sensible and supportive woman, helps her run off and find another life for herself in London as an apprentice to a mantua maker...This is what she later thinks of marriage: Kirsteen stood and looked upon them all with a flash of scorn. Was this the effect of marrying and being happy as people say? The little plump mother with her rosy face no longer capable of responding to any call outside of her own little circle of existence, the babies delving with their spoons into the porridge, covering their faces and pinafores, or holding up little gaping mouths to be fed. It had been a delightful picture which she had come in upon before at an earlier stage, when Anne had wept at her mother’s name, and cried wistfully for a message from home, and longed to show her children. That had all been sweet—but now it was sweet no longer. The prosaic interior, the bondage of all these little necessities, the loosening of all other bonds of older date or wider reach, was this what happiness meant?
The only thing I didn't enjoy in the book was an extended section of "will this good-for-nothing man manage to seduce and ruin this young innocent woman (not Kirsteen) or not?" in the second part. But the ending of Kirsteen's story is awesome.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)
I got in two days of hiking some time ago, so it was time for another Austen audiobook! It had been ages since I read this one, and I enjoyed it, though it is not my favorite of hers. It is funny though, when Isabella wants to be teased about some romantic prospect, and Catherine takes her injunctions not to tease her seriously, so that Isabella has to supply the teasing herself… and wow, John Thorpe. /o\ I can just see the author nodding politely at some annoying guy, while thinking to herself, I'm totally going to skewer you in my book. I do like Catherine and Henry, though it would be nice if Catherine could have got some more experience of life before marrying.
