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Recent reading
Hester by Margaret Oliphant (1883)
Wow, this was great. I listened to the Librivox recording which was very enjoyable, but it's on Gutenberg, too. I will link to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
regshoe’s review for a summary of the plot, but it is one of enemies to… something complicated, between a young woman and her great-aunt. Where the complicated eventual relationship is one of mutual respect and recognition of how similar they are after all, and also one of mentor-and-(strongly implied)-heir-to-her-legacy. Very satisfying! I read someone somewhere complaining that Margaret Oliphant was not feminist enough, which I really cannot understand! Granted that perhaps the three books I have now read of her might not be representative, but those three books have all had a focus on women, relationships between women, and women working for a living.
Kornas planet (Planet of Cows) by Gunnar Rundgren and Ann-Helen Meyer von Bremen (2020)
This book is about cows, from all sorts of angles: What it was like when the authors decided to get cows a few years ago, the history of cows and humans together, how cows and humans live together in different places around the world (with interviews), how cows fit into the food system today and in the past, cows and nature conservation, cows and climate, etc etc. I liked the mixture of down-to-earth stories of their own cows, with the wider outlook.
Wow, this was great. I listened to the Librivox recording which was very enjoyable, but it's on Gutenberg, too. I will link to
regshoe’s review for a summary of the plot, but it is one of enemies to… something complicated, between a young woman and her great-aunt. Where the complicated eventual relationship is one of mutual respect and recognition of how similar they are after all, and also one of mentor-and-(strongly implied)-heir-to-her-legacy. Very satisfying! I read someone somewhere complaining that Margaret Oliphant was not feminist enough, which I really cannot understand! Granted that perhaps the three books I have now read of her might not be representative, but those three books have all had a focus on women, relationships between women, and women working for a living.Kornas planet (Planet of Cows) by Gunnar Rundgren and Ann-Helen Meyer von Bremen (2020)
This book is about cows, from all sorts of angles: What it was like when the authors decided to get cows a few years ago, the history of cows and humans together, how cows and humans live together in different places around the world (with interviews), how cows fit into the food system today and in the past, cows and nature conservation, cows and climate, etc etc. I liked the mixture of down-to-earth stories of their own cows, with the wider outlook.
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...I suppose someone wanting/expecting a modern feminist perspective might think that? But the Victorian context is much of what makes it so interesting...
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Yes! They're so prickly, so when we get that payoff at the end when they finally begin to understand and trust each other, it's very satisfying.
As the book drew to a close, I fully expected that Hester would marry Harry, and wouldn't have minded it, because it would be pretty much like she married the bank. So I was a little surprised when she didn't--although I suppose she still might (how else is she going to have influence over the bank?). But I suppose the author wanted to emphasize that she had a choice, which I can appreciate!
I also think the book very skillfully set me up from the start to ship Hester/Edward at least a little--or maybe that was just me, because Edward was out botanizing and looking for rare plants and I can't help but find that sympathetic! But he stops doing that early on, and by the time he was all ‘don't worry your pretty little head about my financial affairs, I only want your womanly sympathy’, I could not stand him. Which was entirely the author's intent, I think.
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Hee, I had just the same first impression of Edward :D and I agree about how well Oliphant sets him and Edward/Hester up to subvert initial expectations.
The next Oliphant I plan to read is Effie Ogilvie, because just beneath one of the reviews Kidnapped that I found there was a review of Effie Ogilvie that said it has some of the same good qualities!
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Oh, interesting! I'll choose some other one, then, and we can both report back. : )
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