so close! to being caught up! with 2020!
Title: The Winter Prince (The Lion Hunters Book 1)
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Published: Open Road Media YA, 2013 (1993)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 210
Total Page Count: 350,565
Text Number: 1267
Read Because: recommended by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chthonic_cassandra, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Medraut, bastard and prodigal son, returns to Artos's court to care for his younger siblings in this historical retelling of Arthurian legend. It's a fascinating little book, brief, with a deceptively sparse and precise style that reminds me of Wein's inked illustrations and of Elizabeth A. Lynn's novels, which share a focus on place and daily life as they underpin complex interpersonal arcs. There's no magic, but the imagery and winter setting create a quiet mythic tone. The emotional register is more repressed than quiet: angsty but nuanced, ambiguous and troubled; the ending is too neat in view of this, but I appreciate the overall effect.
Title: The Willows
Author: Algernon Blackwood
Published: 1907
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 350,665
Text Number: 1268
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook via Gutenberg
Review: The supporting character's view of the situation is what takes this from "scary trees" (too identifiable in motive, borderline silly in execution) and moves it towards something amorphous, something unknown, something vaster than human and only filtered through a human framework. It's thematically on the nose, but what a good theme. I just wish I'd read it in the height of summer, as the overwhelming pressure of heat and wind is essential to the atmosphere, especially in the first half, and was largely lost on me. I think I'll like this even more with a well-timed reread.
Title: The Romance of the Forest
Author: Ann Radcliffe
Published: 1791
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 350,995
Text Number: 1269
Read Because: personal enjoyment; this is out of copyright but was more tricky to find—Gutenberg doesn't have it, what's up with that?—but I found it here
Review: A family in exile has a young woman thrust upon them by brigands, and they take shelter ruins of an abbey. This is so very Radcliffe, and it's easy to see why it was popular: trashy, tropey, pulpy, all in an atmospheric and romantic way. The reveals and interconnections have a sense of inevitability and the antagonist looms over the narrative with a real sense of threat; the forest and sublime landscapes stretch in a perpetual summer. It's also didactic and contrived, and Radcliffe's poetry is consistently dreadful; and it lacks the organic complexity I found in The Mysteries of Udolpho. So whether it's good is debatable, but it scratched that gothic lit itch for me.
Title: The Winter Prince (The Lion Hunters Book 1)
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Published: Open Road Media YA, 2013 (1993)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 210
Total Page Count: 350,565
Text Number: 1267
Read Because: recommended by
chthonic_cassandra, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County LibraryReview: Medraut, bastard and prodigal son, returns to Artos's court to care for his younger siblings in this historical retelling of Arthurian legend. It's a fascinating little book, brief, with a deceptively sparse and precise style that reminds me of Wein's inked illustrations and of Elizabeth A. Lynn's novels, which share a focus on place and daily life as they underpin complex interpersonal arcs. There's no magic, but the imagery and winter setting create a quiet mythic tone. The emotional register is more repressed than quiet: angsty but nuanced, ambiguous and troubled; the ending is too neat in view of this, but I appreciate the overall effect.
Title: The Willows
Author: Algernon Blackwood
Published: 1907
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 100
Total Page Count: 350,665
Text Number: 1268
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook via Gutenberg
Review: The supporting character's view of the situation is what takes this from "scary trees" (too identifiable in motive, borderline silly in execution) and moves it towards something amorphous, something unknown, something vaster than human and only filtered through a human framework. It's thematically on the nose, but what a good theme. I just wish I'd read it in the height of summer, as the overwhelming pressure of heat and wind is essential to the atmosphere, especially in the first half, and was largely lost on me. I think I'll like this even more with a well-timed reread.
Title: The Romance of the Forest
Author: Ann Radcliffe
Published: 1791
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 330
Total Page Count: 350,995
Text Number: 1269
Read Because: personal enjoyment; this is out of copyright but was more tricky to find—Gutenberg doesn't have it, what's up with that?—but I found it here
Review: A family in exile has a young woman thrust upon them by brigands, and they take shelter ruins of an abbey. This is so very Radcliffe, and it's easy to see why it was popular: trashy, tropey, pulpy, all in an atmospheric and romantic way. The reveals and interconnections have a sense of inevitability and the antagonist looms over the narrative with a real sense of threat; the forest and sublime landscapes stretch in a perpetual summer. It's also didactic and contrived, and Radcliffe's poetry is consistently dreadful; and it lacks the organic complexity I found in The Mysteries of Udolpho. So whether it's good is debatable, but it scratched that gothic lit itch for me.
