Recent reading
Jul. 9th, 2024 09:28 amThe Clergyman's Wife by Molly Greely (2019)
I had no particular prior interest in the pairing Charlotte Lucas/OMC, but since the author's Anne de Bourgh/OFC book was so good, I read this one as well. And indeed, this is very good Austen fanfic as well, with a style that is not pastiche but nevertheless not distractingly modern, and serves the story very well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and recommend it if you're in the mood for restrained, pining, and unconsummated m/f.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edwardianspinsteraunt, you might enjoy it? I thoroughly shipped Charlotte with the farmer Mr Travis and was all arrrgh that ( Spoilers )
The Pastor's Fire-side, Vol. 1 by Jane Porter (1817)
I don't know that I can really recommend this book unless you are 1) completist about reading old slashy historical fiction about Jacobites, or 2) interested in the development of the historical novel, especially as written by women (oursin mentions the author in that context--she preceded Walter Scott and he may have been inspired by her). The style and characters feel a little stiff and overwrought to me, which compares interestingly with the style of actual books written in the 1720's, when this is set.
But is it slashy? Yes, in spades, though it's not really a pairing dynamic that I'm into, so I'm unlikely to write fic for it. Louis de Montemar is a young man, talented and ambitious, though sheltered, who encounters the older Duke Wharton, whom Louis has been warned against as being not only a seditious Jacobite but also dangerous and sinful and tempting as the snake in Eden! Louis encounters him and falls for his charm, and so far he's struggling between his attraction to Wharton and his promises to his guardian to avoid him. What is one to make of references such as these: In that very chamber, four centuries ago, the gay and profligate Piers Gaveston had been a prisoner! and Louis had issued from it, only the preceding day, censuring in his mind the vices of its ancient possessor; and marvelling how any temptation addressed to the mere senses of rational man, could betray his virtue. Um. At the end of the volume, Louis is summoned in a cloak-and-dagger fashion to Vienna by his absent father (or IS IT in fact by his father? he never sees him).
The book is a brick, but it's conveniently divided into volumes, so I can space them out, and give you further updates on Louis's struggles.
I had no particular prior interest in the pairing Charlotte Lucas/OMC, but since the author's Anne de Bourgh/OFC book was so good, I read this one as well. And indeed, this is very good Austen fanfic as well, with a style that is not pastiche but nevertheless not distractingly modern, and serves the story very well. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and recommend it if you're in the mood for restrained, pining, and unconsummated m/f.
edwardianspinsteraunt, you might enjoy it? I thoroughly shipped Charlotte with the farmer Mr Travis and was all arrrgh that ( Spoilers )The Pastor's Fire-side, Vol. 1 by Jane Porter (1817)
I don't know that I can really recommend this book unless you are 1) completist about reading old slashy historical fiction about Jacobites, or 2) interested in the development of the historical novel, especially as written by women (
oursin mentions the author in that context--she preceded Walter Scott and he may have been inspired by her). The style and characters feel a little stiff and overwrought to me, which compares interestingly with the style of actual books written in the 1720's, when this is set. But is it slashy? Yes, in spades, though it's not really a pairing dynamic that I'm into, so I'm unlikely to write fic for it. Louis de Montemar is a young man, talented and ambitious, though sheltered, who encounters the older Duke Wharton, whom Louis has been warned against as being not only a seditious Jacobite but also dangerous and sinful and tempting as the snake in Eden! Louis encounters him and falls for his charm, and so far he's struggling between his attraction to Wharton and his promises to his guardian to avoid him. What is one to make of references such as these: In that very chamber, four centuries ago, the gay and profligate Piers Gaveston had been a prisoner! and Louis had issued from it, only the preceding day, censuring in his mind the vices of its ancient possessor; and marvelling how any temptation addressed to the mere senses of rational man, could betray his virtue. Um. At the end of the volume, Louis is summoned in a cloak-and-dagger fashion to Vienna by his absent father (or IS IT in fact by his father? he never sees him).
The book is a brick, but it's conveniently divided into volumes, so I can space them out, and give you further updates on Louis's struggles.
