Recent reading
Aug. 19th, 2020 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaThe Yellow Poppy by D K Broster (1920)
Very characteristic of Broster, with her fondness for dilemmas between what honour demands and what love demands. There's also a lot of mistaken/hidden identities which are slowly revealed to the reader and to the characters. This one's a het romance with little or no potential for slash, but I did like the central romance: it's about a middle-aged married couple who have been separated for years, partly by circumstance and partly by conflicts/issues they had in their marriage. And now they get a second chance and meet again, both changed by what they've been through. I will say that Broster's tastes in romance and mine diverge a bit when the couple actually get to meet: they've been working through various stuff on their own, and I would've liked to see them talk and work it through together as well, but Broster evidently prefers instant blissful falling into each other's arms instead. But to be fair, they do work through some stuff later as well.
The setting (Royalist aristocrats during the French revolution) grated on me a little bit more here than in The Wounded Name, where it's just a set-up for slash and hurt/comfort and could basically have been set anywhere. I mean, they're all very brave and honourable and loyal and all, but...I don't actually believe in what they're fighting for. My favourite part of the book was probably Valentine at Mirabel, haunted by her past life and trying to accept her present one. I liked her resourcefulness and resilience; unfortunately she grows a bit less interesting once she's reunited with her husband, although I did like her at the ending as well. And Roland was adorable. I also thought de Brencourt was an interesting character--he does some pretty horrible things, but then is given a chance to redeem himself in some ways. I wasn't actually sure whether Broster was going to commit to the ending, or avoid it, but...she committed. And yeah, I think it was a good choice, in the sense that it followed from the themes of the book.
It seems that Napoléon actually did the dishonourable thing he does in the book, but he did it to another guy? Broster writes in a note: "that which is here laid to the First Consul's charge is no libel, for the deeds done at Alençon and Verneuil in mid-February, 1800, are written in history".
I have seen the yellow poppy referred to in the title once in my life! It's quite rare in Sweden and grows on seashores.
Very characteristic of Broster, with her fondness for dilemmas between what honour demands and what love demands. There's also a lot of mistaken/hidden identities which are slowly revealed to the reader and to the characters. This one's a het romance with little or no potential for slash, but I did like the central romance: it's about a middle-aged married couple who have been separated for years, partly by circumstance and partly by conflicts/issues they had in their marriage. And now they get a second chance and meet again, both changed by what they've been through. I will say that Broster's tastes in romance and mine diverge a bit when the couple actually get to meet: they've been working through various stuff on their own, and I would've liked to see them talk and work it through together as well, but Broster evidently prefers instant blissful falling into each other's arms instead. But to be fair, they do work through some stuff later as well.
The setting (Royalist aristocrats during the French revolution) grated on me a little bit more here than in The Wounded Name, where it's just a set-up for slash and hurt/comfort and could basically have been set anywhere. I mean, they're all very brave and honourable and loyal and all, but...I don't actually believe in what they're fighting for. My favourite part of the book was probably Valentine at Mirabel, haunted by her past life and trying to accept her present one. I liked her resourcefulness and resilience; unfortunately she grows a bit less interesting once she's reunited with her husband, although I did like her at the ending as well. And Roland was adorable. I also thought de Brencourt was an interesting character--he does some pretty horrible things, but then is given a chance to redeem himself in some ways. I wasn't actually sure whether Broster was going to commit to the ending, or avoid it, but...she committed. And yeah, I think it was a good choice, in the sense that it followed from the themes of the book.
It seems that Napoléon actually did the dishonourable thing he does in the book, but he did it to another guy? Broster writes in a note: "that which is here laid to the First Consul's charge is no libel, for the deeds done at Alençon and Verneuil in mid-February, 1800, are written in history".
I have seen the yellow poppy referred to in the title once in my life! It's quite rare in Sweden and grows on seashores.
