Recent reading

[luzula]

Am on the way back from my forest surveying camp. It was intense, so I'm enjoying the time to myself on the train back.

The Pastor's Fire-side, Vol 4 by Jane Porter (1817)
In volume three, Louis's father Duke Ripperda fell from power through the machinations of his enemies and escaped from prison. Louis chases after him and finally catches up with him among the Moors in northern Africa. All of Christendom has turned on him, and all of Christendom will now suffer, because Ripperda has converted to Islam in order to lead the Muslims with fire and sword on Spain! Whoa. Louis fails to convince him otherwise. Ripperda becomes a general of the Moors and leads an attack on Ceuta (the Spanish foothold in Africa). In the battle for Ceuta, Louis is wounded when he leaps in front of a stroke meant for his father! Ripperda still does not relent. Louis is heart-broken but is nursed by Marcella, the young woman obviously meant to be his love interest in the previous volume.

In a second battle, Louis distinguishes himself again and Ripperda is defeated. The wounded Ripperda falls from power among the Moors and hides himself away in a place where Louis nevertheless finds him. Ripperda, convinced he has killed his son and overcome with remorse, receives him; Louis convinces him to convert to Christianity again and he dies. I don't know if this is coming through, but Louis is a very pious man.

Meanwhile in Spain, Ripperda was stripped of his titles and vast estates, and Louis is promised to get them if he will only become a Catholic. No, he is a Protestant and refuses, and decides to return to England (insert encomiums on England, the land of liberty). He has just returned thence and is travelling with his cousin Cornelia, whom I have not mentioned yet, when a storm forces them to stop in a hovel, where who should be lying bleeding to death but Wharton, who has been sent there to do Jacobite plotting! Louis is still convinced Wharton betrayed him, but with many anguished pangs he brings the insensible Wharton home and Cornelia nurses him. It is obvious that Wharton and Cornelia will be matched up.

Marcella and her family (which include her brother Ferdinand who is going to marry Louis's other cousin Alice) arrive in Britain, and Marcella's father reveals that Wharton in fact has been Louis's secret ally, though he was Ripperda's political enemy (sorry, can't sum up all the plotting). Louis's reunion with Wharton does not disappoint: When he was told he might approach the chamber; the permission, and the clasp of Wharton's arms around his body, seemed the action of one instant. [...] The gallant heart of the Duke, and the soul of Louis melted at once into one stream of mingling tenderness, and sweet were those manly tears.

The book then wraps up with Louis/Marcella and Wharton/Cornelia. But however, I do not resent this, because they make a perfect sedoretu! Louis/Wharton obviously, but here is Marcella and Cornelia's first meeting: Cornelia dared hardly venture to clasp the beautiful phantom to her bosom; but tenderly supported her tremulous frame to a sofa, where she gently seated her; and, pressing her soft hand in her's, gazed at her through her crowding tears. Was this fragile being, just hanging like a broken lilly, between the next breeze and the cold earth; was it she who had stood the fearful thunders of Ceuta? who had raised her head amidst the storm of war, to staunch the bleeding wounds of Louis de Montemar? to cherish his life at the expence of her own?

"It was!" cried the full heart of Cornelia to herself; and, in inarticulate, but ardent, language, she uttered her welcome. The kindness of her voice drew the last sting of jealousy from the bosom of Marcella. She looked up, and thanked her with her eyes. There was something which passed from them, so powerful to the heart of Cornelia, that she gave way to the impulse of the impression; and, clasping the interesting Spaniard to her bosom, imprinted on her cheek a sister's kiss.

The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones (1981)
It's been a while since I read a new DWJ. I spent a lot of this one being confused, but in retrospect, I think it makes sense? Whoa, those are some dysfunctional parents. Also, I like how just plain weird all the kids are, it makes them such vivid characters, and the four sisters have such complicated relationships. Still, probably not my favorite DWJ.

Comments

[greenwoodside]

Remember really enjoying Time of the Ghost when I read it four years ago.

I think it drew a lot of inspiration from her own life. Felt it was v. atmospheric with a great sense of place, so I just went along for the ride without understanding the details too much!

I also seem to remember there being an aged Irish Wolfhound.

[luzula]

Reading along and absorbing the character interactions is about what I did. And yes, I did read that a lot of it was inspired by her own life!

The wolfhound is great.

[greenwoodside]

My life is sadly short on amiable elderly wolfhounds, so I'm grateful to DWJ for lending me one of hers. (I guess he may have had some sort of analogue in her own experiences).

[landofnowhere]

Thank you for the conclusion to the Porter novel -- that is amazing! And slashy.

[luzula]

Glad you appreciated! Indeed, it is extremely slashy, and the Louis/Wharton relationship is described in similar terms as the m/f ones.

[rushthatspeaks]

Time of the Ghost made more sense when I found out how autobiographical it was. Those are her parents and sisters, and the school they lived in. Her sister did tie knots in her hair and go almost a year before an adult (aunt) noticed and made her take them out, and they did almost strangle one of the sisters accidentally as part of an amateur theatrical performance. And so the existential displacement is not just the adult character looking back on this ludicrously terrible childhood, but the adult writer. I will never like or enjoy it, but I love and admire it, if that makes sense? I think it's quite a feat.

[luzula]

The Wikipedia page does say some of that, yes. And what we're shown is such a breathtaking contrast with what the ghost first believes about her parents: that they're wonderful and her mother is a suffering angel.

[conuly]

Whoa, those are some dysfunctional parents.

Several incidents in the book are lifted directly from her autobiography. At least the fictional parents did eventually visit their daughter in the hospital - the real ones let her nearly die of appendicitis because they couldn't be bothered.

[luzula]

I did read some of that on the Wikipedia page, yes!

the real ones let her nearly die of appendicitis because they couldn't be bothered
Wow. *boggles*

[conuly]

It's always a little sad to me to think that in both this book and in Fire and Hemlock the protagonists are saved, at least for a time, by their grandparents stepping in. No such thing happened to her in real life, unfortunately.

[nnozomi]

those quotations are...something! I think this author has an id and is not ashamed of it, in our terms. Very fun to read your descriptions.

The Time of the Ghost is one of the DWJ novels I find too horrifying to reread, not so much the magical stuff (although that too is pretty dark) but all the mundane stuff about the sisters' lives, the more so because so much of it is autobiographical. Which is a shame, because as you say all four of them are fantastic characters.

[luzula]

Yes, I've been enjoying that iddyness! And when you get used to the style, she can spin a yarn. The first volume was a bit slow, but then I was hooked and found it quite page-turney.

I don't think I'll reread The Time of the Ghost either, but I'm not sorry I read it!

[sanguinity]

Yay, a sedoretu! And yes, that is quite slashy all the way around the square!

Are you gonna take it up in fic, do you think, or are you happy to leave it there?

[luzula]

Are you gonna take it up in fic, do you think, or are you happy to leave it there?
Oh, hmm. It would be something to try to imitate that style! I don't know? At present I'm focused on my longfic. : )

[chestnut_pod]

Welcome home! If you feel like it, I'd be interested in hearing about some of the forests you saw!

[luzula]

This is in the far north of Sweden, so we were looking at old-growth boreal forests with spruce and pine. The forests are used by people for hunting, fishing, berry/mushroom-picking, recreation, and reindeer husbandry. Our purpose was to try to save these forests from being clear-cut by the forest industry, by means of surveying the structure and history of the forest and the rare species living there (mostly fungi, lichens, mosses, insects, birds), which can give tools to argue that they should be protected. Many of the forests were sandy pine forests, where we were a couple of weeks too early to do an effective survey, since it was not mushroom season and these forests have a lot of rare mushrooms.

[chestnut_pod]

Ah, that sounds fascinating. I’m sorry about the scarcity of mushrooms — is there a way to make that up at some later date?

[luzula]

Absolutely! There's a local forest group which can return later and check out the mushrooms.

[osprey_archer]

WOW that meeting between Cornelia and Marcella is so much. SO MUCH. Really it sounds like the entire book is an incredible amount of so much, given how many times you've had to say that you don't have time to explain all the machinations that led to this next plot twist so we'll just have to roll with it.

[luzula]

The book is so much, it's true! Also it was about 700 pages in total, so there's room for a lot of plot--and a lot of passionate emotion. I found it surprisingly page-turney when I got used to the style, and might in future read another one. The Scottish Chiefs sounds promising.

[skygiants]

Time of the Ghost is such a vividly weird DWJ -- uncomfortable as it is, I do think it actually might be one of my favorites. There's just so much going on in all the sister relationships, and in the protagonist's relationship with herself through time.

[luzula]

It is an uncomfortable and weird book, it's true, but there's a lot going on. I wonder what I would have made of it if I'd read it as a kid? As you say, the protagonist's sense of self (or lack of it sometimes) is interesting--and how she learns things about herself from the reactions of the other sisters.

[garonne]

I have loved your read-along of The Pastor's Fire-side. Those extracts are really something. (And wow, yes, sounds very sedoretu!)

[luzula]

Oh good, I'm glad you've enjoyed them! : ) I got more and more into this book while reading it, actually.