Recent reading

[luzula]

The Wounded Name by D K Broster (1922)
Oh my god. Wow. Yes, I think this is indeed even more slashy than Flight of the Heron, just on account of how much time the m/m couple spends onpage together (basically, the whole book). Although I still didn't love it as much as FotH (that would be difficult...) and I think it would be much less satisfying to write fic for. For most of the book I also thought I didn't like it as much as Mr Rowl, but it won me over towards the end and now I like them equally. I think the reason I didn't like it as much at first is that it takes itself so seriously, with little of the Heyer-esque light-heartedness of Mr Rowl, and also without Keith's wonderful sense of humor (Keith, I love you ♥).

The setting is Bourbon Restoration France and the war of the Hundred Days, and the characters are French Royalist aristocrats, which I did not find that interesting/appealing, but OTOH the setting is not as developed as in FotH and anyway it's all an excuse for slash. The relationship dynamic is quite different from Keith and Ewen's, though otherwise we get all Broster's favorite tropes such as hurt-comfort and dilemmas around personal honor. Laurent hero-worships Aymar, and Aymar depends on Laurent for support. There is an (I kid you not!) 120-page section of pure hurt-comfort where Laurent slowly nurses Aymar back to health and we gradually learn more about what Aymar actually did to end up wounded and why he's so anguished about it. In the second half of this section, I think you could probably insert sex scenes without changing the surrounding text, or their dynamic. I mean, they're already cuddling and being affectionate with each other, and Laurent is thinking stuff like [Aymar] was looking at him with that quiet and immensely attractive smile.

So then we get the het romance, which happens to contain a trope I hate: people who grew up together as children in the same household (in this case they are cousins) and then become a romantic couple when they are adults--and it leans into it, too, with phrases like he was her lover, but almost her brother, too. Weirdly, the slash and the het romance just kind of...coexist? And then Broster drops the het romance like a hot potato for a while, in favor of a deliciously drawn-out courtroom scene and an adorable duel (yes, adorable!) which is possibly my favorite scene in the book. Ha, if she had written my FotH sequel, the courtroom scenes in that one would probably have been a lot longer!

feroxargentea observed that Broster seemed strangely reluctant to actually write any battle scenes, given that FotH is set during a war, and that is true of this book too. Waterloo happens far off-stage while Aymar and Laurent have anguished confessions and share a bed in a cave. Got to focus on the important stuff, after all.

Sadly, The Wounded Name does not exist online anywhere, as far as I can see, and as a physical book it's pretty rare (mine has Broster's signature in it! : D ). Maybe I'll have to record it at some point just to make it available for posterity...

Comments

[philomytha]

The Wounded Name is AMAZING as a source of pure unadulterated slashy h/c. It's like every slashy h/c fic ever, only with high quality writing and no actual sex, though as you say, you could easily put in a dozen sex scenes and change absolutely nothing about the rest of the story. I adored all the bits where Laurent's friends and family are going 'he must be in love, he's acting all lovelorn' while he's thinking about Aymar. And the hair kink, omg the hair kink. It's just fantastic and I need to reread it now.

[regshoe]

Oh wow, 120 pages of pure hurt/comfort... this sounds very good indeed (and that hero worship/reliant on dynamic sounds like just my kind of thing, too). I can't wait until my read-through gets to it :D

Yeah, I've had that thought about FotH and battle scenes (while writing a battle scene for my last fic, haha). It's kind of refreshing, in a way—like, the war provides the scaffolding on which the plot is built, but the actual details of fighting are not the most interesting things to focus on (like, as you say, anguished confessions and bed-sharing!).

[luzula]

Before Broster, I didn't even have a thing for h/c, and now I kind of do...

I adored all the bits where Laurent's friends and family are going 'he must be in love, he's acting all lovelorn' while he's thinking about Aymar. And the hair kink, omg the hair kink.

Ha, yes to both of those! OMG, Aymar's bronze hair and Laurent's thing for it. Also the scene where Aymar is like, come and lean your head on my lap, and then gently pulls on Laurent's hair until he falls asleep.

[luzula]

I think you will really love this! : D

Yeah, FotH is not a story about the '45 at all--the emotional beats are on Keith and Ewen's relationship, not on the important parts of the war. Though there are much more historical details, and much more attention is paid to the setting than in The Wounded Name.

[hyarrowen]

Wounded Name is online somewhere, I think. I'll have a look round for it. I like the book, but it's a bit like eating too many marshmallows at once, and after a while my attention wanders. The duel is, fantastic, though.

DKB was a nurse on the Western Front in WW1 so it's no wonder she didn't write battle scenes. I don't doubt she saw things that would make George R. R. Martin blench. Tolkien went the other way, of course, but he knew all about unnumbered tears, after all.

[hyarrowen]

Here's the link. The title's slightly different, possibly so as to fly under the radar. https://www.unz.com/print/BrosterDK-1924n02/ I can't access the content - it might be necessary to log in, which I'm not going to do, or it might have been taken down under copyright regs. Best I can do, sorry!

[luzula]

Too many marshmallows, ha! I do see what you mean, and I think FotH is a better book. It is certainly closer to my heart.

DKB was a nurse on the Western Front in WW1 so it's no wonder she didn't write battle scenes.

Huh, I didn't think of that, but you're right that it might be a reason why.