Recent reading
Sep. 15th, 2021 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaAlmond, Wild Almond by D K Broster (1931)
I had mixed feelings about this one! On the one hand, I enjoyed seeing Broster return to the setting of Flight of the Heron but with different characters. I imagine her being "well, I already did all this historical research, why not put it to use and play some more in this sandbox?" Which was fun for me, too, because I knew a lot of her references--hi, Lady Lude, I recognize your line of dialogue there! Ewen's cameo was also a lot of fun. Aww, Ewen. ♥
So, this is a het love story between the characters Ranald MacLean and Bride Stewart (regshoe has a lot more plot synopsis, if you want). As usual for Broster, she foreshadows death (this time in two ways: the jealous MacGregor who wants to kill Ranald, and the classical reference to the woman who kills herself when her lover doesn't come back). But also as usual, one doesn't know until the end whether it will be fulfilled, whether there will be a bait and switch and some other character will die instead, or whether they will all live happily ever after.
The thing is, the conflicts that are set up between the characters rely a lot on the expectation of female sexual purity and innocence. /o\ This hasn't been the case in Broster's other het romances. The conflict between Ewen and Alison (such as it is) is that she wants to delay getting married because her father is ill and needs her. The conflict between de Vireville and Raymonde in Sir Isumbras at the Ford could just as well have been set up between two men, in that Raymonde wants to take revenge on de Vireville for family reasons, and also they both take active roles in wartime. Ian and Olivia in The Dark Mile have a Romeo-and-Julia setup. Gaston and Valentine in The Yellow Poppy have a second-chance romance--they didn't connect during their first years of arranged marriage, but are then separated by war and earn each others' respect and love later on. Juliana and Raoul in Mr Rowl has her unintentionally landing him into prison and then spending the whole book trying in various legal and illegal ways to save him, and succeeding in the end.
But in this book, Bride saves Ranald from being taken by redcoats by hiding him in the closet and convincing the searchers that actually she has a lover hiding there, an English officer. And is Ranald then grateful that his wife saved him and admires her for thinking on her feet? No, he is very angry that his wife who he thought was pure as the driven snow could even imagine such a thing, and what will everyone think when they hear it, and what about the redcoats who now think he is a cuckold? He does later repent and ask her pardon, but how am I supposed to find this character sympathetic now? Augh. /o\
Also there's de Lancize, a French officer who almost rapes Bride, but doesn't at the last minute. I find him interesting, because in the first half of the book, he seems similar to the honest and honourable French officers of her earlier book. He is brave, and is contrasted favorably with the other French officer who can't take trudging across the Highlands and is relieved to be captured. However, we gradually see more of his attitude towards women (he "prefers married women"), and when he takes refuge in Bride's house he makes an extremely rapey seduction attempt, tricking himself into her room at night and asserting that it's all her fault for being so beautiful and inflaming his passions.
If I were giving Broster a lot of credit, more credit than I think she has earned, you could see this as criticism of the masculinity of the time: both Ranald and de Lancize are brave and often act honourably, and yet in different ways they have this huge blind spot when it comes to women. But I don't actually think this is what's going on here.
So what happens with the rape? Well, de Lancize has a sudden attack of conscience and changes his mind. Circumstances later force Bride to rely on him and he redeems himself by his actions in protecting her and not taking advantage of her (but come on, not taking advantage is a baseline, not a high bar!). His change is portrayed as caused by the power of Bride's purity and innocence, even as a married woman. But arrrgh, it doesn't matter whether someone is pure or not, you should still not rape them!
Also I hate it when a grown woman keeps being referred to as "child-like"! There are other Broster heroines which the narrative tends to describe a bit like this, but not as bad as here. And why? I know she can write women well, too, because she's done it in other books! Bride does get a fairly active role in the book as a whole (certainly she gets to do more than Olivia, for instance) but it's all rather marred by how the narrative treats her. I guess it's true to certain kinds of 18th century fiction--I haven't read Pamela, but it seems to have a related sort of pure-woman-redeems-rapey-man storyline)--but I don't enjoy it.
I had mixed feelings about this one! On the one hand, I enjoyed seeing Broster return to the setting of Flight of the Heron but with different characters. I imagine her being "well, I already did all this historical research, why not put it to use and play some more in this sandbox?" Which was fun for me, too, because I knew a lot of her references--hi, Lady Lude, I recognize your line of dialogue there! Ewen's cameo was also a lot of fun. Aww, Ewen. ♥
So, this is a het love story between the characters Ranald MacLean and Bride Stewart (
regshoe has a lot more plot synopsis, if you want). As usual for Broster, she foreshadows death (this time in two ways: the jealous MacGregor who wants to kill Ranald, and the classical reference to the woman who kills herself when her lover doesn't come back). But also as usual, one doesn't know until the end whether it will be fulfilled, whether there will be a bait and switch and some other character will die instead, or whether they will all live happily ever after. The thing is, the conflicts that are set up between the characters rely a lot on the expectation of female sexual purity and innocence. /o\ This hasn't been the case in Broster's other het romances. The conflict between Ewen and Alison (such as it is) is that she wants to delay getting married because her father is ill and needs her. The conflict between de Vireville and Raymonde in Sir Isumbras at the Ford could just as well have been set up between two men, in that Raymonde wants to take revenge on de Vireville for family reasons, and also they both take active roles in wartime. Ian and Olivia in The Dark Mile have a Romeo-and-Julia setup. Gaston and Valentine in The Yellow Poppy have a second-chance romance--they didn't connect during their first years of arranged marriage, but are then separated by war and earn each others' respect and love later on. Juliana and Raoul in Mr Rowl has her unintentionally landing him into prison and then spending the whole book trying in various legal and illegal ways to save him, and succeeding in the end.
But in this book, Bride saves Ranald from being taken by redcoats by hiding him in the closet and convincing the searchers that actually she has a lover hiding there, an English officer. And is Ranald then grateful that his wife saved him and admires her for thinking on her feet? No, he is very angry that his wife who he thought was pure as the driven snow could even imagine such a thing, and what will everyone think when they hear it, and what about the redcoats who now think he is a cuckold? He does later repent and ask her pardon, but how am I supposed to find this character sympathetic now? Augh. /o\
Also there's de Lancize, a French officer who almost rapes Bride, but doesn't at the last minute. I find him interesting, because in the first half of the book, he seems similar to the honest and honourable French officers of her earlier book. He is brave, and is contrasted favorably with the other French officer who can't take trudging across the Highlands and is relieved to be captured. However, we gradually see more of his attitude towards women (he "prefers married women"), and when he takes refuge in Bride's house he makes an extremely rapey seduction attempt, tricking himself into her room at night and asserting that it's all her fault for being so beautiful and inflaming his passions.
If I were giving Broster a lot of credit, more credit than I think she has earned, you could see this as criticism of the masculinity of the time: both Ranald and de Lancize are brave and often act honourably, and yet in different ways they have this huge blind spot when it comes to women. But I don't actually think this is what's going on here.
So what happens with the rape? Well, de Lancize has a sudden attack of conscience and changes his mind. Circumstances later force Bride to rely on him and he redeems himself by his actions in protecting her and not taking advantage of her (but come on, not taking advantage is a baseline, not a high bar!). His change is portrayed as caused by the power of Bride's purity and innocence, even as a married woman. But arrrgh, it doesn't matter whether someone is pure or not, you should still not rape them!
Also I hate it when a grown woman keeps being referred to as "child-like"! There are other Broster heroines which the narrative tends to describe a bit like this, but not as bad as here. And why? I know she can write women well, too, because she's done it in other books! Bride does get a fairly active role in the book as a whole (certainly she gets to do more than Olivia, for instance) but it's all rather marred by how the narrative treats her. I guess it's true to certain kinds of 18th century fiction--I haven't read Pamela, but it seems to have a related sort of pure-woman-redeems-rapey-man storyline)--but I don't enjoy it.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-15 05:12 pm (UTC)Cool.
Juliana and Raoul in Mr Rowl has her unintentionally landing him into prison and then spending the whole book trying in various legal and illegal ways to save him, and succeeding in the end.
I really have got to read that one.
(I am reacting less to your review of the book under actual discussion because it sounds extremely offputting to me, but as far as
it doesn't matter whether someone is pure or not, you should still not rape them!
is concerned, I have literally seen film noir that knew that; a novel from the '30's has no excuse.)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-15 07:26 pm (UTC)My one-sentence synopsis of Mr Rowl is somewhat simplified (obviously), and there are also other things going on in it. But yes, I do recommend it!
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-15 07:35 pm (UTC)On the other hand, I also agree about the return of Ewen and the appearance of Lady Lude—I've just been reading about her in Maggie Craig's book, and it was good to learn more about those historical details :D
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-17 08:38 pm (UTC)also making an attempt to give her more credit, I wonder if Broster was perhaps trying to portray the culture of the time she was writing about in more detail, and failed to get the moral balance right?
I suppose that's possible, although of course it's only one aspect of 18th century culture. And I can't help suspecting that somehow she also likes this sort of stuff, considering several of her young heroines are described in similar ways? If so, it's funny how her id can in some respects be so close to mine, and in other respects so far away...
There's no trace of it in Juliana, though, even though she's also young. ETA: In general it's something that feels like it comes more with her later books? Olivia, Nest, and Bride are far more innocent and "pure" than Raymonde, Valentine and Juliana. And there's less slashy content in those later books as well. Does she just get less interesting as a writer (from the perspective of what I would like to read about) later on?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-09-18 06:22 pm (UTC)Ha, I've had just the same thought :D You're right that this seems to be getting more prominent in the later books, and the slashy hurt/comfort stuff less so—it does kind of feel like she lost interest in those m/m relationships after the iddy excellence of "Mr Rowl", The Wounded Name and Flight of the Heron. I hope the trend doesn't continue, but we'll see. World Under Snow and her other more modern and/or horror-style stuff sound like something a bit different, at least...
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-14 04:24 am (UTC)I liked Bride a lot, and am sure I could never have come up with the laundry ruse. And Ranald's name for her after their wedding night was quite the eye-opener and not what you'd expect in a 1930s novel at all.
As for child-like as a description for a woman - this was an icky thing that went on even into the 1970s that I can recall. Truly the past is another country. :(
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-20 06:43 pm (UTC)Yes, there are definitely things I like Bride as well--she does get to be an active character, more so than Alison, actually. But I just wish Broster had skipped the purity stuff. : (
I do recall that you said there was an actual sex scene in this book? But I missed it--must have been too oblique for me...
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-21 10:29 am (UTC)It's not so much a sex scene as Ranald, after their wedding night, calling Bride "Bride of the Honey" for reasons that he would not tell. Blink and you'll miss it, but it's there all right.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-22 09:23 pm (UTC)