RIP X: 9, The Law and the Lady

I still have a couple of unread Wilkie Collins novels on my TBR shelves so I decided to pick up The Law and the Lady this season. It is one of Wilkie's later books (1875) and is a thrilling story.

Valeria is an orphan who lives with her aunt and uncle. One day she meets a man who is fishing near her home and it is basically love at first sight. The two quickly get married but, only days later, Valeria finds out that her husband might not be who he says he is. It is therefore up to Valeria to discover the truth.

Yes, this is another super vague description because some of the secrets of the story are revealed quite early and I don't want to give anything away because it's such a crazy, twisty tale. But, as you probably expect from Wilkie by now, there are questions of identity, crime, and, of course, social justice. Valeria is constantly expected to behave in a certain way simply because she is a woman. However, she also happens to be strong-willed and tenacious and this leads to a first-person account that is compelling and ultimately a bit stressful to read! It manages to be smart but insane at the same time and is a great example of Collins' genius with plots and his concern about the Victorian society's treatment of women. I had so much fun reading this book that I will probably choose another Collins to read this winter.

Peeking in the diary,
K

Wilkie in Winter: The Woman in White

I've had such a fun time rereading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins for Wilkie in Winter. It was one of the first Victorian sensational novels that I read and since then it's become one of my favorite genres. I've been looking forward to a reread for many years but just never found the time (darn blogging!). But, with strong (and sometimes quite loathsome) characters, some crazy plot twists and even a compelling social message, this read has reminded me of why I need to make more time for classics.

Avoiding the man with the mice,
K

RIP Reads 9 & 10: Worlds of Wonder and Fear

I was a bit (okay ... REALLY) nervous before starting The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern because it was so highly praised by many bloggers with similar tastes to mine. I knew that it would either end up being a favorite or, sadly, a disappointment. I had won a copy of the ARC soon after it was released but I just never found the right time to start it. Then I also found a super-discounted hardcover that I couldn't resist so, owning two copies, I picked up one of them with excitement and a bit of trepidation. My fears couldn't have been more unfounded. This was an amazingly brilliant and beautiful book. This tale of a mysterious and magical circus and its inhabitants and fans was just so utterly unique and compelling that I got completely lost in the story. I can understand the obsession with the circus both inside and outside the book. Now my fears can be shifted to the film version that is being created at the moment. But if it can capture even a portion of the magic without adding in any Hollywood tropes, it will be something to behold.

I didn't own The Asylum when the RIP season started but I just couldn't resist a new John Harwood. I liked The Ghost Writer quite a bit and loved The Seance. His second book is still my favorite but this comes close, although it's revealed to me another of my major fears -- wrongful imprisonment in an asylum. This is a story of mistaken identity, of a past temporarily lost and of the need to know one's place in the world. The ending is a bit sudden but the suspense and intrigue of the rest of the book makes up for it. I can honestly recommend any of Harwood's books if you are looking for a great RIP read!

Escaping into one world and trying to escape another,
K

A Year of Dickens: New Release: The Solitary House

I asked for a Library Thing review copy of The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd (called Tom-All-Alone's in the UK) knowing only the briefest of details about it but knowing also that it was bound to fit my interests perfectly. So imagine my joyful surprise when I read the first sentence of the book and immediately recognized it as being almost the exact starting words as one of my favorite Dickens novels, Bleak House --

London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.

However, Shepherd's story starts as Michaelmas term has lately begun because this is not the story of Esther Summerson and her family and friends, although that story does live in the background of this one. Rather, it is the story of Charles Maddox, a detective who is trying track down a child that has gone missing many years before. While trying to care for his ailing uncle and mentor, he is summoned to the powerful Mr. Edward Tulkinghorn and is given a seemingly simple case by the formidable lawyer. The ways that these two stories eventually come together is unimaginable, the cases turning out to be just as twisted as the course that Shepherd leads us down through this marriage of old and new stories.

After the pleasant surprise that this was a novel inspired by Dickens, I was even more thrilled to see another favorite novel incorporated later in the tale -- which I won't reveal to you because it's quite a wonderful and unexpected thing. I immediately wanted to reread these two favorites because The Solitary House is written from a place of devotion to these novels and it comes through constantly. But the story that Shepherd has created on her own is just as strong and my worry that it wouldn't live up to the novels that it borrowed from was unfounded. The only moment I was unhappy was when I had to relive one of the saddest moments in Bleak House and, in my opinion, in all of literature. Regardless of my dread of that heartbreaking scene, this was a wonderful novel that would have made Dickens proud in its exposure and denunciation of some of the myriad injustices of Victorian London. I can't wait to read Shepherd's next novel (and I've decided to reread Bleak House for my Year of Dickens after all).

A wonderful read lately over,
K

New Release: The White Devil

The White Devil by Justin Evans is as heavy with history as it is with shocking twists and gruesome detail. Drawing its title from a play by John Webster, this story links together modern day life at the famous boarding school, Harrow, and a period two hundred years earlier when a young Lord Byron attended the school.

Andrew Taylor is a seventeen-year-old who has been kicked out of his school in the States. His father believes that his only chance for a future is to be sent far away to the prestigious Harrow School in England. And yet, from the moment he arrives, he attracts all sorts of attention, not all of it good. His housemaster, the drunken poet Piers Fawkes, sees him as the spitting image of a young Lord Byron and casts him as the lead in his new play about Byron's loves. The only girl in the school, Persephone Vine, sees him as a chance to start over without the weight of her past. And a mysterious white-haired ghost boy seems to take an interest in him as well after Andrew sees this figure assaulting and killing his new friend Theo. The only way forward is through the past in this creepy story.

If you are compiling a list for the RIP Challenge this fall, this book would be a good one to add. The weather here turned grey and rainy just after I started this novel and it added to the palpable atmosphere of gloom and terror that already emanated from the pages. While the story wasn't perfect, it was certainly a memorable reading experience and a fascinating use of the story of Lord Byron and his loves -- both male and female. I will just warn you that the ending of this story is rather disturbing and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Newly terrified by the word "cistern",
K


Support our site and buy The White Devil on Amazon or find it at your local library. We received an uncorrected proof for review from the publisher.

"It was bitter cold, the air electric with all that had not happened yet."

I almost quit reading A Reliable Wife after the first fifty pages or so. I thought the transitions between character stories were choppy and unbalanced and the backstory seemed repetitive. The characters weren't likable so I didn't really care what happened to them. I wasn't sure why Robert Goolrick's book was a bestseller at all -- and then I got caught up in the story and pushed through to the end.

Ralph Truitt is a wealthy Wisconsin businessman who is missing only one thing in his life -- a wife. He had one twenty years before but she died and Truitt never remarried. Now he feels the need for the closeness of marriage in his life so he places an ad in a major newspaper -- "Country businessman seeks reliable wife". Among the responses is one from Catherine Land which starts "I am a simple honest woman". Along with a homely photograph, Catherine's letters make her seem like the perfect choice for Truitt. He is disappointed then when she arrives and is not, in fact, homely but rather beautiful. He would be even more disappointed if he knew she had a small bottle of arsenic in her bag and plans to kill Truitt for his money.

I definitely think the writing improved as the book progressed which was why I was able to stick with it. The characters became more complex though I'm not sure I could say that they improved. Still, it was enough of a transition to make the book readable again. For me, the book was really redeemed only within the last few pages. I liked Goolrick's method of closure to this complex and dark story and my impression of the entire novel was raised in the final moments of reading.

But what really intrigued me was his one page tribute at the end of his story to a book called Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy. This book inspired Goolrick's story with its portrayal of the bleak and violent Wisconsin winters. This was the part of the novel that brought the sensational plot back down to Earth -- although to no Earth where I would want to live. Still, it is the specificity of the setting that really makes this an American Gothic tale. As you have probably noticed, I have very mixed feelings about this book so I will leave the decision to read it or not fully up to each of you!

Determined to live my life in sunshine,
K


Support our site and buy A Reliable Wife on Amazon or find it at your local library. We received our copy unsolicited from the publisher.

"It must have been late autumn of that year, and probably it was towards dusk for the sake of being less conspicuous."

One of the first books I read this year was The Quincunx by Charles Palliser. It was published in 1989 and is almost 800 pages long. It is set in 19th century England -- a period I read about quite frequently. I had seen this book a few times over the years at my local Barnes and Noble on the shelf for books recommended by store employees. The book has no synopsis on the back so it took me a few years to decide to read it.

I think if it did have a synopsis it would be simply this "the story of a boy who becomes a man - in a field of rakes". You know this image from cartoons -- the unfortunate character steps one direction onto a rake that snaps up and nails him in the face and when he turns to go another direction, another rake is there to hit him in the nose again. This book was 787 pages of agony. And yet --- I would read it again. I know, what am I thinking, right? But the book was thoroughly engaging and though you knew the worst would happen -- because it kept happening -- you hoped in each situation that this would be the time that it worked out for young John Huffam. But sadly, there would be 400 pages left with no story and so it continued through the whole book.

The Quincunx, by the way, is the five-pieced symbol on the cover of the book. It represents the five families that are players in the story.

Who would I recommend this book to? Anyone with a lot of patience for misery, an interest in the less-fortunates of 19th century London or the desire to completely escape into another era for a week or two as this book is quite a long read.

Until next time,
K

Postscript: The title of the post is the first line of the book ... i think i will do that in each post so that you can see if it catches your fancy.


Buy The Quincunx on Amazon or find it at your local library.